Sombre ties
by NyxTrinity
Summary: Cassandra Fawley plays a dangerous game of mouse and cat with Sirius Black. Starting a romantic relationship amidst the war was never her plan, but things get messy once her family joins the dark side, leaving her torn between her family and the one who broke her heart.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"So I'll be in Slytherin then mum?" Cassandra asked, letting go of her mothers hand to hop around the platform. They were one of the earliest who arrived to platform 9 a young family of 3, unassuming of their dreadful faiths.

"You might, if you're anything like your father" Eileen Fawley laughed at her daughter's antics. Her husband, Leo Fawley only a few steps ahead of them, looking around and then waving to someone in the distance.

"It's about time you showed up Black, you old fool." He greeted an older man who barely managed to make out a smile through his stern looking face. A much brighter smile greeted him from behind Orion Black. Walburga, once a charming woman, now a strict mother, still managed to greet their old friend with a warm smile. Their youngest son just next to her skirt peeped up at Leo, having seen him for the first time after a long while.

"And I assume this is Sirius?" Leo smiled to the young chap, much to the annoyance of both of his parents.

"Honestly Fawley, must you always disrespect us like this?" Orion growled as his eyes darted to his eldest son, standing defiantly with his back turned to them, wearing a black and red attire. "You should know to separate Regulus and Sirius by now. Sirius! Come here boy and greet mister Fawley here!"

Orion Black shouted to his son, earning a stern look from his wife and a couple of questionable looks from passersby who gradually started filling out the platform. Sirius, turned his head around for a second, as if in deep thought and then proceeded to join a different family and greet their son. Leo knew them as the Potter family, a strange mix they were.

Orion shook his head mumbling something about punishing Sirius after he returns from Hogwarts, however Leo was caught off guard by his daughter suddenly jumping in front of him.

"I wanna be in Slytherin jus like you dad!" She exclaimed earning a chuckle from Orion Black himself.

"Perhaps you will be, and Regulus might even join you as well!" Leo chuckled.

"Yes, at least Regulus won't be a disappointment." Walburga finally spoke up, shuffling through Regulus' hair.

Leo knew not to ask about Sirius, seeing as the young boy was trying his hardest to steer clear from them and was hanging out with two known Gryffindors. He assumed that their son must be the same house, and connecting the dots realized just why Walburga and Orion were disappointed in their firstborn.

Letting out a sigh he shuffled through his daughters light brown hair earning himself a slap on the wrist. Fiery blue eyes glared at him back as he lifted his hands up in defeat. "Dad! Mom spent half an hour combing through it" Cassandra growled and then hurried to her mother to complain.

Shaking his head at his daughter and stifling his laughter he bid farewell to the Black family and joined his wife trying to 'help' with his daughter's hair. After 5 minutes of annoying Cassandra even further, Eileen finally threatened him she would hex Leo if he didn't stop, so he giggled to a halt.

"No hard feelings, eh?" He winked at his daughter's red face turning to his wife. "I swear she gets this from you."

"I've changed my mind, I do want to be a Ravenclaw." Cassandra grumbled as her mother fixed up her hair finally.

"Cassie, it doesn't matter at all which house you are, don't burden yourself so much, you might not be either of our houses at all and that's perfectly fine as well." Eileen reassured her daughter softly. "Now, let's get you on that train. Remember, you have school owls if you want to write to us, but we'll be writing to you weekly so don't worry too much."

Leo picked up his daughter's luggage and finally they went compartment hunting. Due to the hair malfunction issue most of the compartments were full by now, so finally Cassandra chose to join Regulus' compartment as she had already seen him before. Saying goodbye to her parents she sat down next to the quiet boy as two other boys looked over her questionably.

She noticed the one sitting next to Regulus was a bit taller and had longer hair than Regulus, and other than that they looked really similar. Whereas the other boy was a bit shorter, wore glasses and played with his messy hair.

A red-haired girl passed by the compartments making the boy next to her jump up and run out of the compartment.

Awkward silence filled the cabin as neither of the 3 spoke up.

Finally, the boy with the glasses returned. "Oi Sirius, I've found Remus and Peter, wanna go to their cabin? It's also close to Lily's…"

"Right behind you James." Sirius said, jumping straight up and taking his belongings with him, just as the train started moving.

A few more awkward moments later, Cassandra spoke up. "So, ugh, I'm Cassandra Fawley, what about you?"

"Regulus Black." The boy whispered moving to sit in his brothers space next to the window. He huddled up in to his corner and Cassandra not wanting to bother him huddled up in to her own corner next to the door and dozed off.

"Want anything from the trolley dear?" She was woken up by the trolley witch smiling through the door at her.

Realizing her stomach growled from hunger she nodded and bought a couple of chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties and licorice wands. After paying for her food she realized that Regulus too had fallen asleep, his stomach howling in the corner.

Feeling guilty eating it all on her own she woke him up, and the confused boy jerked up frightened. "Hey, I just wanted to ask you if you want something." Cassandra gestured to her food, and realizing he was hungry Regulus accepted, though reluctantly. They ate quietly as if to not disturb each other.

"Which house do you think you'll be in?" Cassandra finally spoke to him again.

"Slytherin." Regulus responded curtly. "I have to be in Slytherin."

"No you don't... you can be in other houses as well, mom says it doesn't depend on your family either, it's what's inside your head, not what you want…" Proudly exclaimed the girl remembering her mother's words. But the fear-stricken boy only shook his head softly mumbling to his chest, 'It's gotta be Slytherin'.

Another couple of hours passed, with the children exchanging a few more sentences while changing to their uniforms. Finally the train came to a halt, and a loud voice called for all the first years to join him in front of the train.

Cassandra and Regulus hurried towards the giant man with the lantern, and like little ducklings they followed him to the bank of a lake. Rows of little boats lie scattered around the beach, and the man gesturing to them starts helping out other kids to get in to the boats. Weary the 2 kids hopped on the boat, joined by 2 more girls and a boy, and in a few seconds their boat was afloat the dark lake.

Not resisting her urge, Cassandra looked over the edge of the boat and played with the water for a bit. In a boat next to her the giant man spoke up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, som'thin' might pop up and eat yer arm off." He giggled and then winked to the bewildered young witch.

"Do you think he's telling the truth? Will something really rip off your arm?" One of the girls on the boat with them spoke up, her eyes as wide as a gazelle's. Cassandra only shrugged, but dared not to disturb the water again.

A couple of minutes later and the man was helping them out of the boat.

He tapped Cassandra over her shoulders " I was only joking with yah, don't worry, ain't nothin' but a squid in there that could hurt ya, and not even the squid will hurt ya if you don't provoke 'er ehh…"

Regulus sighed and walked to the castle and Cassandra glanced back at the weird man, half-intrigued, half-confused.

As they entered the hallway, a stern looking professor greeted them and explained the rules regarding Hogwarts, and Hogwarts houses. Cassandra heard of a point system before but she had no idea she could lose house points as well. That seemed excessive to the young witch.

Having finished her spiel, Professor McGonagall then took the frightened first year students to the great hall to get sorted, and while walking among the rows of tables, Cassandra failed to notice a chair with an old witch's hat sitting atop of it. She only noticed it after the entire Great Hall stifled down and the hole on the hat started singing a song. Bewildered Cassandra stared at it, confused, until she realized it was singing a song about solidarity between the 4 houses.

Finally, it was time for the sorting to begin and Professor McGonagall started calling out student's names. When Regulus Black got called out, his entire body stiffened for a second, then he moved and sat at the chair. Two seconds later and he was walking towards the Slytherin table with a heavy look on his face, incomprehensible to Cassandra.

"Cassandra Fawley." McGonagall's voice called her out and the young witch finally stepped up and sat at the old chair, the witch's hat being placed over her head and falling down to her nose. A voice whispered around her head, probing and searching. She felt like ages had passed before the voice finally came to a conclusion.

"SLYTHERIN!" It yelled out the house, and Cassandra proceeded to join the house that erupted with joy on the far-left side of the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So the first few chapters will mostly be an introduction to Cassandra and other OC's hence why they might be shorter (and thus boring) than the rest of the fanfiction, bear with me, I need to explain all the intricate details and why some things happened they way they did due to her early childhood.

P.S. Thank you so much for choosing to read my story it means a lot to me! 3

Chapter 2

Cassandra sat next to Regulus, smiling at her new classmates and introducing herself to other first year students. She remembered the girl from their boat ride who remained quiet and unbothered by the possible squid attack.

The young witch learnt that her name was Lisa, and Lisa seemed generally interested in their conversation.

Regulus Black on the other hand was chatting up a boy who looked like he had just survived the holocaust, with his long greasy hair falling over his face and ghastly appearance, Cassandra could have easily mistaken him for a ghost. After a few more attempts to interest the boy Regulus gave up and turned back to Cassandra who was fervently listening to Lisa's explanation of the muggle world. Her mother was a muggle-born witch and her father was a half-blood wizard. They had assured Lisa she wouldn't end up in Slytherin so the young girl was now worried her parents might be disappointed to learn of her house.

"It doesn't matter though…" Cassandra started to explain but was interrupted by the headmaster who had just gotten up to hold a speech. She was shushed down by the Slytherin prefect turning around to listen to the speech Prof. Dumbledore was giving.

After the rather long and boring speech, he gestured towards the tables that suddenly filled up with food Cassandra could only dream about. Sure her parents were able to afford a house and average food, but a feast, during such time, was rather rare.

She dived in and joined the dazed Lisa in eating a Shepherd pie, filling herself a glass of pumpkin juice.

Having finished the main course, they were surprised by the sudden change of the dishes in front of them, to all sorts of assorted desserts. Opting for a lighter meal, Cassandra took a handful of grapes and slowly ate them as her new friends gulped down other sorts of desserts.

Finally with full bellies they sat back and almost fell asleep. That is when their prefects got up and signaled for all the first years to follow them. With heavy legs and eyelids, the girls got up and followed the older prefect, while Regulus followed in suit. He seemed to have gone to talk to his brother, and the conversation didn't seem to have gone that well.

"I can't wait for tomorrow's classes!" Cassandra suddenly exclaimed wanting to switch the subject to something else. "I saw that our first class is potions!"

But neither of the other two kids showed such enthusiasm. Lisa was nodding, half-asleep, barely catching up with the rest, and Regulus just wasn't paying her much attention. Defeated Cassandra quieted down for the rest of their journey to the dungeons and the Slytherin common room.

Once there, she gasped at the underwater ambient, a wide window peering in to the black lake.

"Girl rooms to the left, boys to the right." The prefect sighed before leaving the common room. As the first years scuttled around the common room slowly filled up with other students from other years. Most of them didn't pay much attention to the children and hurried along with their business. Cassandra and Lisa decided to head for their bedroom, and meet other girls that would be sharing the bedroom with them.

Upon entry, they immediately noticed a tall red haired girl who was arguing with a smaller, petite brunette girl over the fact whose bed is whose. They both jumped up at the sound of the two girls entering, and seeing as they weren't professors continued bickering.

"Uh, I'm gonna take this bed then…" Cassandra pointed to the furthest one away and Lisa giggled sitting on the one next to to the door. Finally the the red haired girl gave up, took her stuff and sat on the bed next to Lisa, quite begrudgingly leaving the other girl to gleefully take her spot next to Cassandra.

"I'm Amy…" She smiled inquisitively to Cassandra. "Pureblood, what about you?"

"Uhh, I'm Cassandra, and I'm a half-blood I think, dad's a pureblood, but mum's a half-blood…" The girl answered, not entirely sure why Amy had to ask her that.

"Well that makes you more of a pureblood than half so it's fine, what about you, rosy face?" Amy looked at Lisa, but the moment Lisa explained her mother's blood status the girl's face contorted in to a grimace. "Great, there are now two mudblood lovers in my dorm."

"Mudblood?" Cassandra stared at her until the red haired girl answered.

"It means of filthy blood, she's saying that just because one of our parents is muggle born, we're of filthy blood as well." Red haired girl glared at Amy who just shrugged it off, mumbling to herself how she wasn't wrong.

"And what's your name?" Lisa turned to her bed neighbour.

"Rosemary, you can call me Rose though, or Mary…" Shrugging off she started undressing her uniform and putting on her pajamas.

"Well, my mom calls me Cass, or Cassie so if you want you can call me that, or Sandra, Sandra is cool too…" Cassandra's voice trailed off as she got in to her pajamas and lied down on to her bed, falling asleep within seconds of her face touching the pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Form this chapter onward I will be time skipping through their school years, because although there are certain events that I need to tell, I can't go into great detail about every single class they had ;)

Chapter 3

The first few weeks of classes were quite tiring for the young first year witches and wizards. Getting the hang of their classes and finally managing to memorize where exactly their classes were held, took about two weeks, and another two weeks to figure out all the possible shortcuts they could take to minimize the chances of being late.

The moving stairs were of no help to them either, their patterns impossible to get a hold of. They could only sit and pray they don't end up on a hallway they never encountered before, and possibly be late to their classes. Professor McGonagall was particularly strict when it came to being late to class, taking a few points each time they were late.

They quickly figured out that being late to History of Magic could go unpunished as the old ghost professor cared only for his lectures and did little to interrupt them. As long as you slipped in without causing a ruckus you could get away scot free.

Potions proved to be one of Cassandra's favourite classes, professor Slughorn favoured a number of students who showed interest and proficiency in potions so Cassandra often got more praise then some of her other classmates. Amy in particular wasn't too thrilled about that.

She and Rosemary turned a blind eye on the argument they had their first day, as long as Amy didn't provoke her and Lisa again, by calling them mudbloods or mudblood lovers.

Charms seemed to go naturally for Lisa, her true self finally being able to express and she jumped up and down before each class out of sheer excitement.

Before they knew it, almost two months had passed by and it was time for Halloween. Regulus Black seemed especially distant this time so Cassandra decided to check up on him.

"Hiya Regulus, ready for a feast tonight?" She asked joyfully, but the boy absentmindedly nodded without paying much attention to the young witch.

Suddenly as the clock ticked six o'clock he jumped up and ran out of the common room. As he was running Cassandra barely managed to shout out after him: "The feast is at seven! Where are you going?"

Lisa who was quietly observing their interaction looked just as confused as she was. After a few more seconds Cassandra decided to follow Regulus, and darted out of the common room. Realizing she doesn't know where exactly he went, she decided to head for the great hall and possibly catch him coming back from it as the feast hadn't started yet.

Getting to the hallway, she thought she saw someone move up the stairs, and after confirming that Regulus wasn't in the great hall she climbed up the stairs as well, and again found herself lost at the three new hallway branches.

Ahead of her were more stairs, and since she could only see a couple of older students moving along them she dismissed the fact that Regulus might have taken the stairs. Left was a hallway that lead to multiple empty classrooms, and more stairs whereas right was the bathroom, the hospital wing and a branching hallway that connected to the left side.

Thinking that if Regulus had gone this way he might have stopped by the bathroom, although unsure why he would do it on the first floor and not in the dungeons or the ground floor, Cassandra turned right and slowly listened for the sound of water near the bathroom. After a several minutes she sighed defeated and decided to go forward to the left hallway branch, when she heard a loud bang coming from the end of that hallway.

Freezing in her spot she listened carefully, but no more sounds emitted out of that classroom. Just as she was about to move again she saw Regulus and his older brother Sirius exiting the classroom, vividly arguing about something.

Regulus waved his hands in the air and then suddenly shook his head taking a turn for the stairs and leaving the hallway. Sirius sighed, disregarding his brother and then turned around noticing Cassandra. They locked eyes for a second before the proud second-year Gryffindor quickly brushed off and went down the hallway towards her, passing her by without even glancing at the stupefied witch and going down the stairs, just as the clock ticked half past six.

Cassandra took a deep breath and then went down the hallway trying to find Regulus. She knew he went towards the stairs, so it wasn't too hard to spot him on a different flight of stairs after getting on a moving pair. However the moving set of stairs didn't help her out and by the time she figured out where she was Regulus had disappeared without sight. She spent another fifteen minutes trying to look for her friend, but when the clock ticked fifteen to seven, the young witch gave up defeated and proceeded to join Lisa for a feast in the great hall.

The feast was nearing it's end when Regulus finally showed up, refusing to speak to anyone as his stomach growled for food. He ate quickly and as the desserts started showing up, he grabbed a handful of chocolate chip cookies and left the grand hall.

After the feast, happy and sated the kids agreed to play a game of gobstones in the common room, Lisa even mentioning inviting Regulus and his couple of friends to join for a few round. Isaac, with whom Regulus spent most of his time agreed and Cassandra was left hoping to talk with the boy after dinner.

However Regulus refused to show up and play, leaving the witch a bit disappointed.

After that evening, speaking with Regulus Black became even more difficult and infuriating than before.

In not time, winter came and soon they were getting ready to leave for Christmas break. After packing their bags Lisa and Cassandra went down to eat breakfast. Upon entering the great hall they immediately noticed Amy who was talking to oblivious Regulus. Rather than oblivious, he seemed more annoyed, if anything, Cassandra thought to herself as she sat down next to Rosemary.

Eating their breakfast with a pleasant chatter they failed to notice how Amy's constant pestering continued to annoy Regulus even more, until she finally asked the wrong question.

"By the way, I noticed your brother hasn't packed his bags, what's up with that, first he joins Gryffindor now he doesn't go home for Christmas? Quite the odd one out isn't he…" She laughed to herself, barely noticing Regulus' pained face as he stood up from the table and darted out of the great hall.

"You just had to push his buttons didn't you Amy?" Rosemary asked begrudgingly.

Cassandra only sighed remembering the argument he had with his brother almost two months ago, but not speaking of it cause she didn't want Amy to hear it.

Ten minutes later the teachers informed them to start getting ready for departure and the girls stood up hurrying to their bags which waited for them in front of the great hall.

The ride back to London was uneventful and after saying goodbye to her friends, Cassandra ran to her parents, and went home for a peaceful winter break.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Christmas break was refreshing after a semester of hard work for Cassandra and she enjoyed the winter days with her family. They were given a bit of homework over the break but nothing she couldn't handle. Herbology perhaps had the toughest task out of the few given. It was an optional task but Cassandra was determined to finish it.

However, as the days dragged on, she still hadn't managed to find the rare plant professor Sprout had asked them to look out for. After asking her mother about it she confirmed that the plant she was looking for didn't grow around their town, so Cassandra started looking for ways to visit some other forests and towns in hopes to find the mysterious plant.

Sadly, her father got caught up in some work, and her mother had to help him out so they couldn't travel to any location, until after February which would be too late, of course.

Defeated, the girl took her jacket and went into the forest, around their house, on her own. In the quiet forest the girl rummaged and searched, but to no avail. The plant was never there to begin with. However she did manage to find dittany, a bushy plant that she read about in one of the books. Sadly, she forgot the properties of the plant so she decided to leave it without touching it. Hesitating for a bit, Cassandra took off the ribbon from her hat and tied it to the nearby tree.

Perhaps she might need it sometime in the future.

Coming home she overheard her mother and father arguing about something, however their voices were muffled so she managed to understand just a couple of words.

"...becoming stronger… join…" her father whispered something fervently.

"...dangerous, Cassie… too young!" Her mother's voice hitched, before it went back to it's usual unintelligible whisper.

Cassandra tried to open the door but that only halted their conversation as they paid attention to the locked door with the turning knob. After several more tries she finally gave up hurrying to her room. She still had to pack her suitcase for the second semester. As the girl packed up her books and clothes she couldn't help but wonder what they were arguing about. _Maybe they wanted to get a pet dragon but thought she was too young to take care of it?_ Her mind thought of the possible dangerous situations which could involve her, none quite close to the actual reality of things.

The next day her father entered her room, and gently woke up the sleeping girl from her slumber.

"Time to get up, don't want to miss the Hogwarts express!" He ruffled her hair. Standing up Leo tossed some clothes to her bed and left her room. "Breakfast is on the table, don't be late or you'll regret!"

Jumping up, the girl got dressed quickly and yawning started going downstairs for breakfast. Her mother had made french toast with pomegranate, and by the looks of it half was gone already.

"Dad, why do you always eat everything?" Whined Cassie as she sat down at the table.

"No wands at the table." Eileen warned her husband who had placed his wand there after getting the food on the table.

Cassie had made sure that her wand was neatly placed back inside of it's box, and safely tucked away in to her suitcase. It was an 11 inches, Unicorn hair, Cedar tree with great flexibility and unique vine like carvings alongside the handle reaching up to the tip of the wand. At first glance the carvings were unintelligible but when looked up closely they would pop out and have a faint glow each time she cast a spell.

After breakfast, the young family apparated to King's Cross, and in the old fashioned way ran through the wall dividing the platforms 9 and 10, and in a matter of minutes Cassandra was boarding the train and saying goodbye to her parents.

On the train she found Lisa and Regulus in their compartment, and as per usual neither of them was talking. Just as she entered the compartment Isaac bumped in to her and toppled her over Lisa.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Cassandra growled at the boy as she got up and adjusted her hair and clothes.

"Sorry Cassie, it was my fault." Said Isaac as he picked up his suitcase and lifted it to the suitcase compartment. On the side his pet owl hooted disapprovingly as he watched the boy fumble with his cage.

"So how was your Christmas break?" Cassie asked hoping to break the tension between them.

"Oh nothing special. Mom wanted us to visit her family so we spent almost the entire time in the south, with my grandpa and grandma." Isaac smiled meekly.

"What about you Lisa? How do muggles celebrate Christmas?"

"Oh there's an entire tradition behind it. We had to go to church on Christmas eve cause mom never missed any sermons before she found out she was a witch." Lisa giggled. "But there's this huge dinner for Christmas and everyone brings presents and we all open them together. It was really nice."

"So except the church it's pretty similar you'd say?"

Lisa nodded and then conversation soon died out again.

After several minutes they discussed presents they had received, and everyone except Regulus engaged into conversation. Cassandra tried several times to get the gloomy boy to speak up but he shook his head and sunk deeper in to his seat. Cassandra found that odd, but didn't want to push him any further and the conversation died out once again. Cassie was pretty sure Regulus had fallen asleep, so she hushed down Lisa and Isaac and leaned back resting her head against the headrest. She had dozed off for about two minutes when suddenly she got woken up by a loud bang as someone barged in to their compartment.

"There you are!" Amy's voice echoed as Cassandra scowled at the brunette. And she wasn't the only one, Regulus looked extra annoyed at the newcomer.

Rosemary was right behind her and rolled her eyes at the extravagant girl. "C'mon Amy let's go back to our compartment, we don't wanna intrude on their little sleepover here."

Cassandra darted her confused eyes over to Rosemary and the sudden coldness in her voice towards their group. With a giggle Amy left the compartment not bothering to close the door behind her and Rosemary quietly judging everyone inside of it left without uttering any other word.

"Okay, what was all that about and why in the name of Merlin was Rosemary so cold to us?" Lisa whispered several seconds later as Isaac got up and closed the door.

"They've been friends for as long as they've been alive. I guess they got tired of playing with you guys." Isaac shrugged and sat back down.

"Wait they've known each other from before?" Cassie interrupted.

"Yeah, my mom's a good friend with Rosemary's mom, and the two of them were practically raised together as they're neighbors… did they not tell you that?"

Cassandra shook her head. "I thought Rosemary's a half-blood?"

"She is, just both of her parents are half-bloods, and neither is connected with the muggle world in any way…"

"So they were just messing with us for half a year? Acting as if they hated each other? Why? What was the point?" Lisa shook her head full of disdain.

Agreeing it made no sense at all, Cassandra sighed and slouched back to her seat. The rest of the journey was spent contemplating possible motives for such a stupid decision. Finally Cassandra concluded that the girls might have been arguing for real but decided to play them when they showed up, and weren't brave enough to admit they were just teasing them.

Either way, each kid made a mental note to be wary of the two girls.

Arriving back to Hogwarts, they were given a day to settle in and then classes started again and the castle livened up once more.

As the seasons changed so did the kids' opinion about Rosemary and Amy change. At first they were just wary about them but as time passed by it was more than obvious Amy had gotten Rosemary wrapped around her finger and the two of them turned against Lisa. Their disdain seemed to be caused by the fact that her parent was a mudblood as they called her. Cassandra often had to restrain herself from jumping at them, both figuratively and literally.

Finally the school year was coming to an end. Their tests were finished and the kids spent their time lounging underneath the tree next to the lake. Cassandra wanted to rest but something bugged her so she decided to stretch her legs and walk around a bit.

Soon she found herself strolling next to Hagrid's hut and through the open window she overheard a conversation.

"I just don't want to live with them anymore, Regulus this, Regulus that, oh Sirius you're such a disappointment."

"I'm sure they'll eventually get used…"

"No they won't James! They're not your parents, they believe in this pureblood craze this Lord Voldemort is spreading…"

"Don't ya utter the name of that beast in my house." Hagrid warned Sirius through gritted teeth.

"Just… uh whatever let's get out of here…" And without missing a beat the distressed boy jumped out of the hut and ran back towards the castle, as Cassandra stood there thinking she finally understood why Regulus was always so gloomy.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry for the little twist in the previous chapter, I'm still a novice writer and your reviews mean a lot to me. I will try my best to explain certain motives and reasons however bear with me, It's been a long time since I was 12 years old, and I can only vaguely remember my mindset back then. Thank you so much for reading this story *heart*

Chapter 5

During Summer break, on July 6th, Cassandra celebrated her birthday and invited over Lisa and Regulus. Unbeknown to her, her parents also invited Regulus' parents over as well as Sirius, who of course did not show up.

However his parents did, and not soon after found out that Lisa was a half-blood. Orion and Walburga wouldn't have minded her as much but Lisa started talking about some muggle presents she had got for her 12th birthday, which agitated the Black parents. They excused themselves from the room and proceeded to join Leo out in the garden.

Lisa, unassuming of what might have caused the abrupt disappearance of Regulus' parents, continued to talk about her muggle gifts and even Cassandra agreed some of those were quite nifty and cool.

Cassandra asked for a pet for her birthday so Leo and Eileen gave in and bought a tabby cat for their daughter, much to her delight. Cerin was a name given to him by his previous owner who sadly passed away from unexplainable circumstances. The cat was then brought back to the magical pet shop from which he was bought, and since her parents thought she might fare better with an already adult cat they decided to adopt him for Cassandra's birthday.

With a loud meow Cerin popped up next to Cassandra and Lisa and started purring, wanting cuddles. The girls obliged, and even Regulus seemed interested in the cat.

Cassandra noticed bags forming under his eyes, and wanted to ask him about it. However, she never got the chance and soon the party was over. They said goodbye and Cassandra wondered what could be making the young boy so tired during Summer break.

* * *

Cerin got accustomed well to his new family although he seemed to hate the carrier bags, as the moment Cassie tried to place him in his carrier bag he started squirming and biting her hands.

"Cerin please! I need to put you here because pets aren't allowed outside of their cages during the trip, I promise you once we get to Hogwarts you can roam around as much as you want!" Cerin hissed but to no avail as Cassandra promptly plopped the cat to the carrier and quickly closed the door.

"There now was that so hard?" She shook her head taking the carrier bag as her dad picked up her suitcase.

"Ready to go?" She nodded and they apparated to Kings Cross in a second.

"Dad… is mom going to be alright?" Cassandra asked after passing through the wall. Eileen had gotten sick over the past few days and they contemplated taking her to the healers. Finally, they decided they would take her to St. Mungo's if she wasn't better by September 1st.

"Yes, she will. Don't worry too much about it." Leo smiled but his grin didn't match his eyes which were full of worry and dread. Eileen had become weak due to constant vomiting and inability to hold down solid food. They tried some home potions they had but none worked and only worsened her vomiting.

Cassandra knew her father wanted to reassure his daughter and she was grateful for that but still a sense of dread overflowed her as she tried not to think of the worst.

Boarding the train Cassie started looking for a compartment when she ran in to Rosemary sitting alone in one.

"Hi, mind if I join you?" Cassie wondered for a second if it was such a good idea to join the girl that had essentially lied to her during the entire first semester of first year, and then spent the next semester talking how Lisa didn't deserve to be in the Slytherin house.

Rosemary looked at her for about two seconds before sighing and nodding at the girl.

Having sat down, without skipping a beat, Cassandra fired her questions at the confused girl.

"Why did you two lie to us? You're a half-blood, Lisa is one too, why is that such a big issue? Why did you hide that you knew each other for 3 months?"

After the initial confusion Rosemary just shrugged her shoulders, shifting her ginger red hair off them.

"Amy thought it would be fun and interesting to tease our roommates, and her mom said that we should definitely do that… but for some reason, she didn't want to admit to it, and only agreed after coming back from winter break. As for Lisa… she's just an outsider from our group, just look around you when we get to Hogwarts, everyone in Slytherin is in some way connected to a pureblood, my grandfather was a pureblood who married a half-blood. Lisa on the other hand… no one from her family is in any way connected to purebloods, making her connection to the muggles even bigger…" Rosemary braided her hair as she explained.

Shaking her head Cassandra informed the stubborn girl that it didn't even matter what their blood status was to which Rosemary snorted. "Have you heard of Lord Voldemort, Cassie?"

"I heard his name once, though I don't know who he is…" Cassandra recalled the time she overheard Sirius talking to Hagrid about him.

"He's a powerful wizard, who's trying to promote purebloods over mudbloods, and he's already gotten himself quite a following. And if you asked around, you'd know there are already some witches and wizards in our house who had joined his side and pledged their service to him. He will be the end to all mudblooded wizards and witches." Having braided her hair Rosemary stood up, took her things and left the compartment.

Cassandra's thoughts filled with even more dread as she started to worry what that wizard would actually mean for all the muggleborn witches and wizards. Indeed, the young girl knew the reality of the situation wasn't the best, but her mind never even brushed over the fact he might try and kill them.

Soon enough Lisa joined her compartment and noticing the girl was distressed quickly asked her what was wrong. Cassie slowly repeated to her what Rosemary said about them, and wondered why she had spoken now and not back in school when they pestered her non-stop to explain. Maybe because Amy wasn't around to stop her? She then told Lisa about Lord Voldemort and even Lisa was confused as to who he might be.

By the time Regulus and Isaac found their compartment the girls had already switched to a different topic. It was nearing the time when they would arrive to Hogwarts so they quickly put on their school uniforms and wondered what the new school year would have in store for them.

* * *

Having arrived back to Hogwarts through magical carriages, the kids sat around their table expecting professor Dumbledore's speech and food to appear any moment. For a second there, most of the second years forgot that there is a sorting ceremony right before the feast.

Looking at the first-year students Cassandra felt more mature and grown up in comparison to them. She wondered if they looked as tiny as the newcomers a year ago.

After the last student got sorted (Watson, Hufflepuff!), headmaster Dumbledore stood up and started his speech. His eyes ever so slightly glowed when he talked about uniting against a common evil that was a posing threat to society. Cassandra suddenly remembered the chit-chat she had with Rosemary on the train and looked over the hunched girl as Amy whispered something to her. They snickered and were quickly shushed down by the Slytherin prefect.

Once professor Dumbledore was done, he motioned at the tables and as soon as food appeared on the tables Cassie turned to Lisa.

"Do you think he was talking about Voldemort?" Cassandra asked quietly. Not loud enough for everyone to hear her, but audible enough for Regulus to choke on his food.

She eyed the boy as Isaac quickly slapped him over the back and he regained his composure.

"You alright Regulus?" Cassandra asked a bit suspiciously. As the boy nodded, she asked another question. "You don't happen to know who Voldemort is?"

Cassie watched as all the blood from Regulus' face drained and he became tinier than a mouse.

"He's a really, really bad wizard… don't speak his name again, please." His voice croaked. Quickly taking a gulp of pumpkin juice Regulus avoided further conversation on the topic.

Cassie wondered just how the two brothers were affected so much by a wizard, could he really be that bad?

A couple of first year students sitting next to them overheard their conversations, and whispered to each other grimly. Cassandra sighed tying her hair in a ponytail and continuing with her dinner.

Almost an hour later, with a full stomach, the kids scuttled away to their dormitories. Amy and Rosemary completely ignoring Lisa whilst normally chatting with Cassandra.

The girl just stared at them in bewilderment before hopping on her bed and rolling up the drapes.

Tomorrow was a long day for the kids starting with the defense against the dark arts.

_But I didn't see professor Turnip around, did she leave?_ Cassandra thought as she fell asleep.

Her dreams were incoherent and confusing to say the least. She kept dreaming of a boogeyman coming to Hogwarts and scaring all the children, all while professor Turnip cooked some noodles on the stove, but those noodles suddenly started moving and out came the snakes, slithering their way down to the Slytherin common room.

She woke up, not rested at all with a wild headache throbbing in her head. After a few minutes the headache passed but the overall confusion of the dream remained as the girl got ready for her first class.

She was correct in her assumption that professor Turnip left as they got greeted by a new, younger professor, Jacob Hudson. He looked like he was in his early twenties, with light blonde hair that shined golden as the rays of sunlight glazed right over it. As he smiled to the oncoming children, small wrinkles formed by the edges of his mouth and chestnut eyes. However, there was no warmth behind his stern gaze.

As soon as the last child sat, he started teaching, and they all soon realized, that no matter how much he smiled and favoured some students, he had no problems giving them 2 pages of homework for next week and giving detention to 'unruly' students.

"So much for mister charming…" Lisa mumbled to herself after the class during the 15 minutes break between classes.

Cassandra gave an approving grunt, rubbing her hand, tired from catching notes the entire class.

After 10 minutes they quickly hopped back up and proceeded to their next class.

* * *

Not a lot happened during the next few months, except Regulus getting accepted on the seeker position and a few Quidditch matches. Cassie got confirmation that her mother was doing better after getting admitted at St. Mungo's hospital and she felt relieved.

Halloween had gone by without an accident and now they were well into November when Amy finally made a snide remark at Lisa during one of their free periods.

Lisa had taken out a letter she received from her mother and was reading through it while holding back tears.

Her uncle was found dead and the muggle police are investigating it currently. She knew that his name would come up in the Daily Prophet as some aurors got involved, so Susan thought it would be best to inform her daughter beforehand.

Her uncle was a muggle. He knew about his sister's magic and kept it secret, bought great gifts for Lisa and her younger brother, and even offered to take them to Europe when they were older.

Cassandra didn't know how to console the grieving witch so she just quietly sat next to her rubbing her back.

At that point Amy bumped into them and without a second of thought immediately remarked: "What's up muggle lover, mommy got rejected from her job cause she's a mudblood, so now you gotta live from the street like the rat you are?"

Cassandra had never seen Lisa angry, but at that moment, if she were Amy, she would've fallen flat on all fours and begged for mercy.

Lisa had taken out her wand and pointed it straight towards Amy.

"Lisa, no…!"

"Flipendo!" But before she could even finish her sentence Amy flew to the wall right behind her, crashing in to it with a painful yelp from getting hit by a Knockback jinx.

"What is going on here?!" They heard a gasp as professor McGonagall rushed towards a slightly disheveled Amy. "Miss Peters, 20 points from Slytherin! And a detention for a month as well!"

"Professor McGonagall, it was Amy who started it!" Cassandra tried to help out her friend but only had the wrath of McGonagall pointed at her now, and she quickly gazed down, frightened by the angry witch.

"Had I not been here, and seen you trying to stop her, you would have been punished as well, do not push this any further, using The Knockback jinx against her own housemates! She's lucky she's not getting suspended!"

With that professor McGonagall picked up Amy and hurried her towards the Hospital Wing.

"Lisa, I…" Cassandra started again but Lisa stopped her from speaking her mind once more.

"Save it Cassie, professor McGonagall is right… I don't know what came over me…" Lisa whispered, drying the remaining tears from her face and hurrying towards the Slytherin common room.

Cassie sighed and turned around to pick up her things when she heard a giggle behind her.

"Your friend seems nice." The voice snickering behind her sounded familiar.

She turned around noticing Sirius Black and James Potter glancing back to where Lisa had run off.

Cassie shrugged her shoulders and quickly ran past them.

"Maybe we could ask her to do the same to Snivellus…"

"Drop it Sirius, why would she…"

However, she did not hear the end of their conversation and definitely did not want to stick long enough to hear it.

As she neared the Slytherin common room, she saw an unknown red-haired girl from Gryffindor talking with a boy from third year that went to Slytherin. They seemed startled by her presence however Cassie just ignored them hurrying to her dormitory.

In the common room she noticed Rosemary, yet when she arrived to their dormitory Lisa was nowhere to be found.

Grunting, the girl went back to the common room and sat next to her studious roommate.

"Have you seen Lisa?" Cassandra asked after few minutes. Rosemary had a puzzled expression as she slowly lifted her head from the book.

"No, why would I want to keep track of your mud…"

"Don't call her that!" Cassie interrupted her spiel. Sighing, she quickly gathered her books and decided to wait for Lisa in front of the potions classroom as that was their next class.

However, Lisa didn't appear in any of their classes until she finally showed up in the dormitory after dinner.

"Where were you?!" Cassandra immediately jumped from her bed and grabbed the tiny frame of her best friend.

"Professor Mcgonagall had a talk with me, I explained what happened and why it happened. She then waited for Professor Slughorn to finish his class to see what they should do about me. They gave me a day off and tomorrow I'm travelling back home to spend a week with my family…" Lisa quietly explained as she packed her stuff in to the suitcase, having wiggled out of Cassandra's grasp.

"And when I return I'll start with the detention… also Amy's fine. They had us apologize to each other but we all know it wasn't truthful… but, at least she's fine."

Her head hung low, and Cassandra quickly pulled her in to a hug as the young witch started to sob.

"I really meant to hurt her back then you know, but… but it feels so wrong now…"

Just as she finally calmed down Rosemary entered the room followed by Amy who avoided all eye contact with the rest of them. She quickly sat down on her bed and closed the drapes. Rosemary just glanced over them before following suit.

"At least she's not a pain in the ass anymore." Cassie leaned over and whispered to Lisa, earning a light chuckle.

"Good night Cassie." Lisa yawned and pulled her own drapes, leaving Cassandra the only person who still hasn't gone to sleep. She pondered a little bit longer before she snuck out of the dormitory with her Defense against the dark arts homework in hands. She didn't manage to finish it today due to the whole situation with Lisa.

As she sat down in front of the fireplace, the entrance opened up and the boy she had seen earlier talking to the red-haired Gryffindor girl quickly entered and then stopped, startled by Cassandra.

Making no comment he dashed for the boy's dormitory and Cassie wondered for a second if he went to see that girl again.

* * *

A/N: So sorry for the re-upload, I just realized that some elements of the page got deleted during the upload (idk how, I'm new to this) so I had to edit it and re-upload.

p.s. sorry again for re-re-uploading, but I finally managed to fix the issue, I hope you enjoyed a bit longer chapter


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the long break I had some exams that I needed to study for, but I'm back and I will definitely continue this story so don't worry! Thank you again for choosing to read and review my story, it means a lot!

Chapter 6

After Lisa returned, she informed Cassie that although her parents did not want to discuss anything with her, she did hear them talk about Lord Voldemort.

The girls pondered for a while just how powerful that wizard must be to escape both the muggle and the wizard police. On the other hand Christmas break was nearing and so their assignments started to pile up and they soon stopped thinking of who Lord Voldemort was and focused on their tasks.

Professor Hudson informed them that all the assignments they don't bring in will be left after the Christmas break so everyone was huddled up in the common room copying homework they had accumulated over a couple of weeks.

Christmas break was over before it even started. Cassandra and Lisa agreed to stay this year at Hogwarts as Lisa's mom felt it was safer for her to remain there.

Though barely, the girls managed to finish all of their homework in time and enjoy a couple of free days.

They often spent their time snowballing in the courtyard and making enchanted snowmen. Cassandra enjoyed the quiet part of Hogwarts quite a bit. Professors who were there were having fun as well and she got to interact with students from other houses even more.

The red-haired girl that often talked with the boy from her house, Severus, was named Lily Evans. She was a muggleborn and Cassie noticed that a lot of her classmates thought that Severus shouldn't be interacting with her at all.

However more often than not, Cassie saw Sirius teasing James about Lily when she passed by them. For the Christmas break however both of the boys were gone, and Lily was talking to a feeble boy she hadn't noticed before. His mousy hair and ashen skin, framed with deep bags under his eyes gave off an impression that he could drop dead any second, and no one would be surprised.

Just as she thought that to herself, she saw madam Pomfrey hurrying towards the sick boy and practically carrying him from the table.

"Perhaps she's going to administer him some medicine?" Cassandra said to herself, earning a confused 'Hmm?' from Lisa who hadn't paid much attention to other students as Cassandra.

Lily looked over to them, before hurrying out of the Great Hall to the Gryffindor common room.

Two days later other students started pouring in, returning from their holidays, and among those happy faces Cassandra couldn't help but notice one, not so happy face shifting quickly away from his brother. _What on Earth was going on with the Black brothers? _She thought to herself.

* * *

Time flew by, and by Easter, nothing special had occurred. Slytherin won a match against Hufflepuff and Regulus enjoyed his time in the team as a seeker. Having ignored all their requests to come out of his room, Regulus studied and quickly beat Cassandra as the number one favourite in professor Slughorn's class.

With the help of his friend from third grade, he managed to make a couple of perfect potions, making the potion's professor beam with happiness.

Although a little agitated and jealous, Cassandra forced a smile and congratulated her friend. He needed some reassurance, and she shouldn't feel that way cause he was hogging up the spotlight now.

Amy and Rosemary continued to ignore Lisa throughout the second semester, however the witch did not mind their behavior and focused on perfecting her knowledge of charms whilst fighting the ever growing homework pile from the defence against the dark arts class.

At one point Isaac popped by them carrying a pile of notes and begged them to help him out so they ventured off into the library in order to find the best answers for their problems.

"So you're still held up on the Banshee homework? Okay, what's the issue?" Lisa quickly jumped to the rescue as Cassandra walked through the shelves searching for books that might help them.

"An effective defence against such creatures is actually a laughing potion, Riddikulus is used against Boggarts."

"And they're from Ireland?"

"Not necessarily, the myth is native to Ireland, Banshees on the other hand can come from wherever…"

Cassandra grabbed a book she was looking for and gleefully returned to their table.

"This has information about the Tongue-tying curse!"

"The… what?" Lisa blinked at her twice baffled from the sudden interruption.

"I heard it's great for duels, cause your opponent can't cast spells." Cassandra flipped through the book until she landed on the spell and it's description.

"And when were you planning on having a duel?" Lisa looked mortified at that thought. "Or is this because of what happened between Amy and I? You know I would never do that again?"

Cassandra shook her head taking out homework from the last class. "I asked him about it, cause I read it in our book that it existed but it never explained how to use it, so he suggested that I look up this book in the library and write him half a paper for it by the next class for some extra points."

Lisa pouted. "That's not really fair now is it?"

Cassandra shrugged as a pang of guiltiness poked around. It wasn't her fault, she had just asked about it and he went and requested the paper from her. The young witch did not plan on that, nor did she hope to earn some points behind her friends' back.

"So how's Regulus doing?" Cassie turned towards Isaac trying to shift from the uncomfortable situation, yet Lisa just squinted before continuing her own homework.

"He… he shut me out completely… doesn't talk with any of us in the dorm, just studies all day long and refuses to talk to us. I think he had a pretty big fight with his brother this time…"

"His brother? Sirius?" Cassandra blinked, remembering how one year ago she had seen them arguing on the stairs.

Isaac ever so slightly nodded. "He doesn't talk much about his brother, however you can see that it's Sirius that bothers him the most. And usually when he does this it means he argues with his brother, but I've never seen him… this…"

His voice trailed off as a grimace showed up on his face, effectively making Cassandra even more worried.

"Next week will be another Quidditch match, maybe we could catch him after it and prepare a little surprise to cheer him up?"

Lisa suddenly suggested looking up from her book.

Cassie smiled and vigorously nodded immediately coming up with a plan, considering that he probably wouldn't be too keen on staying in the common room so they should look for an empty classroom, and fill it with his favourite food. Though they will need to find out where the kitchen is and how to enter it…

Just as Lisa was about to add on to the conversation Isaac turned to them wide-eyed and pale.

"Uhh guys… when did we cover Gytrashes? And why is it due tomorrow?"

"Oh for the love of… Isaac start doing your homework on time!" Lisa gritted her teeth and pulled out her own notes and started tutoring Isaac.

Having finished her own homework Cassie started setting up a plan on how to catch Regulus after the match and who to ask about the kitchen.

* * *

"I overheard one of the Hufflepuffs talking about the kitchen entrance a couple of months ago, I just remembered about it! I'll ask Helen about it…" Lisa exclaimed as they approached the Quidditch pitch.

"Helen?" Cassandra looked at her questionably.

"Oh I met her on the Hogwarts Express back in our first year, she's pretty sweet, you might like her." Smiling, the two witches climbed up to the Hufflepuff post and Lisa nudged a blonde girl that was sitting right next to the exit.

"Hey Lisa!" Helen beamed and hugged her friend, after which she immediately turned to Cassandra with an outstretched hand.

"I'm Helen, you're Cassandra right?"

Cassie shook her hand quietly nodding.

"So Helen…"

"Shush, the game is starting. Let's go, Ravenclaw!" Helen exclaimed as Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle in to the air and having it immediately snatched by the Ravenclaw chaser.

"I just need to ask you this one question and we'll be out of here in an instant." Lisa insisted and the blonde turned to her questionably.

"Where is the kitchen, and how do we enter it?" Lisa blurted out causing Helen to giggle.

"You needn't have fussed so much about it, it's right next to our common room, just tickle the pear on the fruit picture." And with a wink the girl turned her attention back to the game and offered a reassuring cheer for the Ravenclaws as the Slytherin chaser scored a goal.

Lisa pulled Cassandra down the stairs and started sprinting back to the castle.

"Lisa, hold up!" Cassandra tried to take a deep breath but her lungs felt as if they were on fire. "What's the big rush?"

"We need to find the kitchen and ask them for food before the match ends!" Lisa said almost annoyed. "This was your plan Cassie!"

"Yes it was, but Merlin's beard Lisa, the game won't end any time soon, and even if it did, he still won't be out of the locker-room in less than 20 minutes…" Cassandra finally managed to catch her breath and prop herself up. "I can't run again, you go and I'll meet you in the classroom…"

With a grunt Lisa turned away from her friend and darted back to the castle. Cassie took her time recovering and slowly walked back clutching at her side. As she entered the castle she walked in face first into the back of another student.

"Ow! Watch where you're… oh it's you snakey."

"Sirius Black…" Cassandra rolled her eyes trying to pass by the thirteen-year-old.

"Oh so you know my name, guessing from Regulus? Must be talking all about how much of a failure I am to the Black family." The black haired boy grinned seemingly unbothered by what he had just said.

"If you must know he doesn't even talk about you, perhaps you should apologize to him? He's been a mess ever since he came back from the winter break." A slight growl slipped through her lips surprising even herself at the hostility she had expressed.

Sirius flinched a bit and pulled away from her. "He's the perfect child and I'm the disgrace, and the sooner he accepts that fact, the easier it will get when…"

"The easier what gets?" Cassandra looked at him puzzled, however the boy just shook his head losing all the pain and worry from his face and switching it for a playful grin.

"I better get going, see you around snakey!" He slipped past her and started pacing backwards towards Hagrid's hut.

"My name is Cassandra!" She yelled after him but he just shrugged off.

"Sure thing snakey!"

Exasperated, the girl hurried to the first floor and barged in to the classroom effectively scaring Lisa who was putting down plates with the help of a couple of house elves.

"Where were you? I thought you collapsed or something?"

"I ran in to Regulus' brother, don't ask, did you manage to get everything?" Cassie asked eyeing the food and drinks scattered around the classroom.

"Oh yes these little guys were a lot of help, thank you again!" Lisa smiled to the house elves who bowed down not accepting their praise.

Cassandra smiled as they left and then sat down waiting for Isaac and Regulus to appear.

About 25 minutes later they heard shuffling and Isaac barged in literally dragging Regulus by the collar of his shirt.

"Well, I brought him here!"

"Surprise!" Lisa and Cassandra said awkwardly and waited for Regulus' reaction.

"What are you guys doing? We can lose house points if they find out!" Regulus eyed everything up and down and as soon as he noticed his favourite pastry he ran up to it.

"Wait is this all for me?"

"We saw that you were feeling down for some time now so we wanted to cheer you up a bit…" Cassandra spoke offering him some cold orange juice.

Regulus lit up and quickly the atmosphere lit up as well. The children laughed and joked, and for the first time they witnessed their classmate truly being happy. Isaac had brought some gobstones with him and they played a couple of games, and to their surprise Lisa won almost all of them.

She also brought a couple of muggle sweets her parents had sent her and were trying out several sour candies when they saw Mrs. Noris, Filch's cat, poking her head through the door.

With a hurry, they gathered their things and giggling bolted out of the classroom running for the dungeons. Lisa stopped by the kitchen to leave the plates, and after thanking the house elves they hurriedly scuttled back to their common room. Regulus thanked them profusely before bidding them a good night, and Cassandra finally slept soundly knowing she managed to cheer her friend up.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! This was a bit shorter chapter than the previous one, I just wanted to apologize for the long wait. There were some exams that I needed to study for and couldn't focus on this story. I hope you understand. Also, the next chapter will start from Year 4 as I am trying to get to the main plot of the story without having a 10 chapter exposition about everything.

Thank you again for reading my story, it means a lot to me and I hope you stick to the end of the story!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_Two years later_

"Did you bring everything with you Cassie?" Eileen asked as she picked up some stray dishes from the table and left them in the sink to clean. A brush she had enchanted seemed to protest a bit from the added work but Eileen barely noticed as she enchanted a broom to clean up dust from the floor.

"Uhh, almost. Where is Cerin?" Cassie's head popped out as the girl leaned from the doorway in search for her missing cat. "I swear to god, that cat…"

"I think I saw him chasing some insects in the garden…" Eileen turned around but her daughter had already left the house. Shaking her head, the woman went upstairs and nearly collided with her husband.

Leo looked disheveled and worried as an open letter swayed in his left hand. The broken seal of the Black family caught Eileen's attention and she stopped her husband noticeably worried.

"Leo, what happened?" Her inquisitive words snapped the man from his worry and he took his wife's hands, shaking his head.

"The Dark Lord… Eileen, perhaps it would be best…"

"No!" She almost screamed at him, thanking god their daughter wasn't in the house to hear them. "He is a vile creature, and you will not listen to the likes of Orion Black for advice! I don't care how long we have been friends with them, you can not let that man control every aspect of your life!"

Leo's gaze faltered and slowly he started ripping the letter in to pieces. "For now, I will ignore his requests, but Eileen, dear, he's our future, and it would be best if we joined him as soon as possible."

Having ripped the last piece of paper, Leo walked downstairs and started burning in the fire place.

"Oh dad, have you seen Cerin?" Cassandra opened the back door and entered the house visibly worried for her missing cat, not noticing the desperation her father hid behind his eyes.

"Have you checked the attic? I've seen him chase some some stray pixies around in there…" Leo smiled as he threw the last piece of the letter, with the Black family seal, into the fire. The exasperated girl bobbed her head to the side, and quickly climbed the stairs whilst yelling for her cat.

As she disappeared, Cerin slowly plopped down from the highest bookcase and yawned next to Leo, quietly purring, content with his mischief.

* * *

An hour later the family had arrived to King's Cross station and Cassandra swiftly boarded the train, with a very irritated cat in her arms. She navigated through dense crowd before finding the compartment in which Lisa, Isaac and Regulus sat.

For the most part of their third year Regulus seemed, normal. The gloom and dread which latched onto the boy had completely disappeared, however as Cassie gazed over her friend, she couldn't help but notice a faint sorrow sigh that escaped his lips.

"Cassie!" Before the witch could even sit down she heard someone yell her name from the narrow hallway, and after she quickly placed Cerin into Lisa's hand, turned around to see Rosemary who stood somewhat awkwardly. The train started moving slowly and most of the students had gone to their compartments by now, however Rosemary quickly grabbed the railing as to not fall, and asked for a word with Cassandra.

Confused, Cassie slowly closed the compartment door and approached warily her housemate.

Rosemary shifted nervously, her ginger hand entwined between her nimble fingers, trying to find the right words to express herself.

"I, just wanted to apologize… for my behaviour for the past three years… " Her gaze never left the floor as she uttered those words and Cassandra had to take a moment to actually realize what she had said. "It was brought to my attention that such behaviour is wrong and that I should apologize for it so… there, I'm sorry."

"It's really not me who you should be apologizing to… Lisa…" Cassandra started but Rosemary interrupted her midway.

"I'll apologize to Lisa as well, I just wanted to start with you first…" Rosemary sighed and then asked for Lisa to come out as well. Isaac and Regulus both looked over at each other for a second, wondering whether they should interfere or not however Cassie reassured them as she carefully sat down on to the seat. Cerin hissed at her and she only rolled her eyes at him.

"You're lucky you're out of your cage you know?"

The cat jumped up and hid behind her suitcase, quietly grumbling to itself. A couple of minutes later Lisa entered the compartment perplexed and confused.

"What, in the world?" Her eyes scanned the compartment as she sat down, catching the same bewildered look from Cassandra. "Did she apologize to you as well?"

Cassandra nodded, and Lisa muttered something about the world ending as they know it under her breath. None of the teenagers understood why Rosemary would apologize, and during the trip to Hogwarts they pondered about it for quite some time, often coming back to the topic, however never truly yielding any answer.

As the train slowly came to a halt, the kids took their bags and started getting ready to leave. However Cerin was uncooperative and hissed, scratched and bit whoever tried to get him out. Cassandra grunted angrily and told the others to go ahead, as she stayed behind begging Cerin to move.

"Please, for the love of… c'mon you stupid cat! Move your damn ass, I know you hate train rides but you never made such a fuss of it! What do you want? I can't help you if you don't let me!" Cassandra slightly screamed, further agitating the angry pet.

"Perhaps stop yelling at him?" A voice she recognized almost immediately made her jump back, and as soon as Cerin heard him, he stopped hissing.

Sirius Black stood in the door frame of her compartment smirking at Cassandra. As she regained her composure, he reached upwards and got Cerin out, the cat now purring in his arms.

"How did you…?" Cassie stared bewildered, and Sirius only shrugged his shoulders. Turning around he signaled her to follow leaving the compartment. The girl hurriedly followed him as he jumped off the train and started walking towards a carriage. The door swung open and she recognized James and Remus, who were sitting inside, however a smaller, feeble boy she had seen a couple of times, also sat next to Remus and greeted her as she entered the last carriage. Having introduced herself to them, Cassie found out his name was Peter.

"When did you start making friends with the snakes Sirius?" James grinned, nudging his friend a bit, earning a hiss from Cerin.

"When she got a cat that actually likes me…" Sirius playfully nudged James back as Cassandra shifted in her seat. She tried, multiple times, to get Cerin into her lap but the cat would only howl if Sirius placed it there, and quickly reached for him again.

"How long has this affair been going on? Cerin, you disappoint me…" Cassie shook her head disapprovingly at her blissfully unaware cat.

James gasped, his eyes wide spread and clutched his heart. "How could you Sirius? I thought we had something real!"

The boys snickered as Cassie watched, amused by their brotherly behaviour. She caught herself wondering if Sirius ever treated Regulus the way he treats his friends, but before she could ask him anything the carriage stopped and the boys jumped out. Cerin quickly jumped down as well and ran inside the castle.

As Cassandra approached her friends she received a death glare from Severus, only now realizing that he and the Gryffindor dimwits had been bickering for as long as they were at Hogwarts. Regulus also looked shocked but quickly cooled off after she had explained that Sirius was the only person Cerin wanted for some reason.

They giggled and teased a bit as they entered the Great Hall, however soon enough, first years got sorted and the feast had begun.

* * *

"Now, the vanishing spell can also be used for both animate and inanimate objects, however as the object, or animal becomes more complex so does the complexity of the spell increase… Evanesco!" Professor McGonagall demonstrated the use of the transfiguration spell on a small hedgehog that disappeared with a quiet pop. "Does anyone have an idea where the vanished objects or beings disappear to?"

None of the students dared to speak however Lisa lifted her hand and got called out. "It is believed that they go into non-being, which is to say, everything…"

"Someone has been studying. 25 points for Slytherin, well done miss Peters!" Professor McGonagall smiled and continued the class. They were given slugs to work on, however, by the end of the class only a handful managed to vanish their slugs.

Their transfiguration professor was pleased on the other hand, and stated that by their next class half of the class should be able to properly vanish their slugs.

"If I were to vanish a human, would they disappear into nothingness or simply die?" Cassandra wondered as they left the classroom earning herself a shocked gasp by her best-friend.

"First of all, did you not listen to what Professor McGonagall was teaching? We had trouble vanishing some slugs, and you're thinking of vanishing a complex being as a human?"

Wide eyed, her friend replied in a hushed tone, careful not to be heard by anyone around.

"I'm not thinking, I'm asking, if someone, not myself, were to hypothetically vanish someone, would they plop out somewhere or simply die?" Cassie argued back as Lisa tried to shush her down.

"If anyone were to do it, I suppose they would die, but the witch or wizard must be extremely skilled and strong, I don't believe Professor Dumbledore could do it let alone someone else…" Lisa's whisper caught the attention of Amy who had just passed by them. She hadn't spoken a lot to the girls in the past few years, however hearing the last part of the sentence made the wicked girl turn around and reply.

"Whatever you're saying Professor Dumbledore can't do, I can assure you the Dark Lord can…" And with a wink the girl left Lisa and Cassandra puzzled at hearing about the dark wizard again. Lisa's parents tried their hardest to protect their daughter by simply telling her that he was a dark wizard and that she shouldn't associate herself with anyone who supports him. On the other hand, Cassie's parents refused to tell her anything, claiming it to be some fairy-tail which others had made up to scare their children.

However, it was becoming increasingly hard to hide everything from their daughter, and by November, news of Deatheaters and their murders in the name of Lord Voldemort had appeared on the front page of the Daily Prophet.

Having read the grim news, the girl felt misled by her parents, and a fool for not realizing sooner what was going on.

As the Christmas break approached so did the news of Voldemort and his followers increase, and having subscribed to the Daily Prophet herself, Cassandra wondered why her parents didn't want to tell her about him. Maybe they truly believed him to be some fictional character?

"Miss Fawley?" The voice of professor Willow snapped her out of her daydream. "Perhaps you can repeat what Salvio hexia does?"

The girl shyly shook her head, as the professor of the defence against the dark arts stared the girl down, focusing her golden eyes on her. "Please pay attention next time Miss Fawley, or I will be forced to penalize you…"

She then continued on the various uses of the protective charm, and the wand movement needed to perform the spell. As the class neared it's end, Regulus passed her a note.

_You're coming over to my place for Christmas… I just got the news from my parents._

Those few little words, written in neat handwriting had confused the poor girl even more that after the class she immediately pulled Regulus aside and questioned him. However, he had no explanation and could not give her the answers she sought, so before the next class, Cassandra ran to the owlery and sent her parents a letter, demanding answers. With mere days left until Christmas break, she worried that the letter would not reach them in time.

However a two days later she received a reply from her mother.

_My dearest Cassandra,_

_Your father and I had to urgently leave as your father got transferred, for the time being, to Europe. Knowing how dangerous it is now everywhere in the world, we decided to ask for a favour from our close friends, the Black family, who happily agreed to have you over for Christmas. Knowing how good friends you and Regulus had become It made us most happy that they had accepted to take you in. _

_I'm sorry for not telling you this sooner, however everything happened so suddenly and I hope you can understand. _

_Perhaps, if you do not like this proposal, you could ask professor Slughorn to add you to the list of students that are staying at Hogwarts? _

_It is your choice after all,_

_Love, mom._

The letter left a bitter taste in Cassandra's mouth. Not only did they not tell her about her father getting transferred to Europe, they also acknowledged the danger in the world after having reassured their daughter time and time again that everything was perfectly fine.

And to make matters worse, professor Slughorn refused to add her to the list saying she was too late and should have thought about that sooner.

Defeated, the girl packed her suitcase and boarded Hogwarts express, dreadfully awaiting her arrival to the Black residence.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_A few days prior_

Eileen Fawley was making dinner on a perfect Sunday evening - after all it was their 16th marriage anniversary and she prepared everything to celebrate it. That morning she apparated to a local market near London and bought the necessary ingredients. After buying the muggle food, she proceeded to the Diagon Alley in order to acquire some more extravagant produce.

As she strolled down the alley, various curious looks were flying in her direction, as many people hid in their homes and shops. Ignoring them, Eileen entered the produce market and greeted the old witch that worked there.

With a sour smile, the witch greeted back and offered her help. As Eileen picked out the produce, focusing quite a bit on several plums, the old witch tended to other customers. Suddenly the normal haggling chatter died out as the two women were quietly whispering, thinking Eileen didn't notice them. A bit annoyed she approached the cashier and the old witch hurriedly turned to ring her up. After buying the produce, Eileen exited the market, however, she quickly realized she had left her gloves in the store and hurriedly returned.

"...Orion Black!" The other woman exclaimed just as Eileen reentered the shop, freezing her in her steps for a second. The two women looked as if they had got struck by lightning, however Eileen decided to ignore them, explaining she had left her gloves in the shop, Accio-ing them to herself, and with a curt nod, left the market.

Realizing that she was rather unwanted in the area, the woman quickly left London, and returned to her home, not allowing petty people to ruin her perfect day.

As the pie in the oven finished baking, Eileen looked at the clock and sighed as her husband was late yet again. She had hoped that he would remember to be on time at least tonight, but it would seem her hope was in vain.

An hour had gone by, and there was still no sign of Leo. The cold dinner was sitting on the table, as the woman slouched in her chair, holding back tears.

"He must have gotten held back at work, and couldn't leave early…" Eileen finally snapped out of her sorrows and finally ate her dinner. The casserole was mildly warm and the pie still had a nice dirigible plum taste to it, made to perfection using her grandmother's recipe.

She took her plate, washed it in the sink and then with a swish of her wand turned off the light in the room and went to sleep.

About half an hour later, Leo stumbled back home, back scrunched from the work he had done, and tired from the tasks his superiors had given him the entire night. As he entered his house, a familiar scent of dirigible plum pie, only his wife knows how to make, washed over him, and he wondered for a second why she would buy such an expensive fruit all of a sudden.

As he sauntered over to the kitchen, he saw plates and food still there, with his favourite casserole quietly waiting for him and a snuffed out candle in the center of the table. The man pondered while he ate until his eyes fell on the date, and he realized he had completely forgotten about their anniversary. Fully stricken with guilt, Leo joined his wife in their bed, not wanting to wake the sleeping woman up especially since he had already messed it up pretty badly.

The next morning after they had woken up and Leo profusely apologized for being late home, blaming it on his superiors, they were sitting at the table and having small talk, when suddenly an owl knocked on the window and Eileen opened it up for the animal to enter. She took the letter, leaving some food and water by the fireplace for the owl to warm up, and seeing as it was addressed to her husband gave the letter to him.

Her eyes fell on the Black seal and she wondered if Walburga and her kids were alright, all the while as Leo read the letter. His eyes widened after having read it and he silently set the letter aside.

Turning to his wife he spoke. "We need to go to Europe…"

Eileen almost choked on her food as she watched her husband in disbelief. "What on Earth? Why now?"

"Orion, he needs us to do something for him, and there aren't any better curse breakers out there that he trusts…" Orion sighed, taking a look again at the letter. "He arranged everything, we'd stay in the Netherlands for two weeks, and after we have finished our tasks, we'd be rewarded and allowed to bring whatever we need back with us…"

Shaking her head, Eileen requested more information.

"Well, we'd be going tomorrow, and…"

"Tomorrow?! Cassie is coming home the day after tomorrow! I can't leave her alone for two weeks!" Eileen almost screeched at her husband.

"Orion has covered that little tidbit in the letter as well, he invited Cassie over to their house, and I think it might be a good way for Cassie to spend with her friends." Leo immediately added, trying to calm down his wife.

After finishing her tea, Eileen looked over her husband once more. "Leo, this curse breaking, is it connected to the Dark Lord?"

Leo hesitated to answer, earning himself a suspicious look from his wife. "I don't know, but if it is, it might just prove beneficial to us… after we join his side officially…"

"Again with joining his side! Why would we…?" Eileen's exasperated voice got cut off as Leo jumped up and took his wife's hands.

"For our safety, for our child's safety, Orion has been talking with the Malfoy family after Narcissa and Lucius got married, they can vouch for us and the Dark Lord will offer us his strength as he prevails…"

Eileen pulled out her hands, shaking her head slightly filled with uncertainty. "No matter what I say, you will still join him, won't you? And what about the blood purity thing? Will you join him as he hunts down muggleborns and kills them? Will you join him in killing my father?"

With living rage burning inside her, Eileen quickly stood up and stormed out of the kitchen. Leo sighed picking up the letter and neatly folding it back in to the envelope and placing it in his coat.

* * *

Cassandra Fawley watched as Sirius Black said goodbye to his friends, looking on as they begged him to come with them, and wondered why the boy shook his head with a sad smile while he turned around and joined his family.

Her thoughts went over the occasional glances Orion Black darted towards his eldest son, filled with hatred, and Walburga's patronizing voice when Sirius finally joined them. He avoided talking to them, but greeted Cassandra with a genuine smile, although she could see a hint of uneasiness radiating from the boy's body.

The family quietly walked and as they left King's Cross Cassandra focused on memorizing her surroundings, if in case she needed to run away that is.

After ten minutes they took a turn for the left, avoided a park with children, made a turn around a large yellow building and ended up in a run-down neighbourhood that read Grimmauld Place on the address sign. They walked until they reached number 12 and finally entered the dusty looking house. However, on the inside, the house was anything but dusty, neatly decorated it showed off the Black family's wealth. To further emphasize it, they were greeted by a house elf wearing old rags. He quickly disappeared with a loud pop though, as they silently piled into the narrow hallway. The only audible sounds were Cerin's soft meows to be let out of his carrier bag and the quiet ticking of a clock somewhere in the house.

"Regulus be a dear and show Cassie where she'll sleep." Walburga faked a smile as they settled in, but the oblivious girl did not notice it.

Regulus took her bag and motioned her to follow him. Cassie took Cerin into her arms and followed him upstairs.

He quickly climbed up the stairs, passing both his room and his brothers, until he reached a guest room and left her bag there.

The room itself looked pretty clean, with dark violet tapestry and matching curtains hanging from the windows to the floors. An old chandelier lit up as they entered and shone over a single bed, desk and a dresser in the room. The wooden flooring screeched under the gray rug as Cassandra slowly walked into the room. She noticed mahogany door on the right side which upon opening lead to the bathroom.

The vintage looking bathroom had another door on the other side, so Cassandra assumed that it lead to another guest room and quickly closed the door not wanting to get too nosy.

"Sorry…" Regulus apologized looking down at the floor. "It's nothing special, and you have to spend Christmas with us now… and this isn't one of the most hospitable families…"

"It's fine Regulus, you don't need to apologize…" Cassie smiled and started unpacking her suitcase. As she opened it a little box, wrapped in paper, popped out and the girl quickly backed away, startled from the suddenness. Cerin meowed as well as he sniffed the box curiously.

She picked up the box and noticed it came with a note.

Deciding that a reasonable thing to do would be to read the note first, the girl ripped it open and immediately noticed Lisa's handwriting on it.

_Dear Cassandra,_

_I didn't know if I'd be able to mail you your gift this Christmas as my family is sending me away to my grandparents home in Wales. They don't know anything about me being a witch so I couldn't bring an owl with me. _

_So Happy Christmas in advance! _

_Love, Lisa_

_P.S. I snuck this in your bag while you were off arguing with Cerin about the carrier!_

Cassandra smiled and placed the box on the desk, not wanting to spoil her surprise for Christmas.

Regulus snatched the letter from her hand and then eyed the box.

"Aren't you gonna open it?" He asked.

"No, I'll wait until Christmas, it's in three days anyways." Cassie smiled as she continued to fold her clothing into the dresser. Regulus nodded and placed the letter down, awkwardly shifting in his place as he so obviously did not know what to do. Thankfully he heard his mother calling for him so he quickly jumped out and closed the door as he left.

About ten minutes later, Cassie heard a feint knock on her door, and she quickly invited whoever was on the other side inside as she still hadn't organized all her stuff. In came Sirius, his hair ruffled, dangling on his shoulders, dressed in a red shirt and black sweatpants, looking more muggle than ever.

"Uh dinner will be in five, the birth giver sent me over to inform you and get you down to eat with us, a pleasant family dinner like none you had before…" Sarcasm was evident in his tone of voice but he seemed to cheer up a bit as Cassie started laughing.

"I'll be down in a minute, let me just quickly change from my travel clothes."

Sirius took a second to process what she said, and then nodded closing the door to give her privacy. Changing quickly out of her black pants and travel T-shirt into jeans and a gray-green striped shirt, Cassie swiftly folded them in to the bin and exited her room.

Sirius waited for her next to her door, slightly leaning back on the wall, so when she abruptly exited he jumped up a little.

"Let's go little snakey, ladies first…" He grinned and Cassie rolled her eyes.

"My name, is Cassandra!"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Dinner with the Black family was quite a peculiar experience, Cassandra noted as she ate her lamb chops. Their house elf, Kreacher, would pop out from time to time in order to refill his master's drinks or to bring out new and fresh food. The elf seemed pretty friendly and eager to help out, however whenever Sirius spoke Cassie noticed his scowl towards his younger master.

_Not that Sirius spoke in a fine manner that Regulus used. _

As the dinner slowly came to an end, Orion and Walburga invited the children to the living room for a cup of tea.

Glancing towards Sirius, who looked more than bothered by the request, Cassandra quietly stood up and followed Regulus into a large open area, with a sofa taking the center part near a piano. Long drapes fell over the windows, but as they entered it Kreacher flicked his fingers and the drapes moved aside letting some light into the room. He then disappeared with a pop and as they sat down, he reappeared with some tea and biscuits.

"Please, make yourself at home Cassandra." Walburga smiled but her smile had Sirius visibly frown, making Cassandra wonder what they might want.

Regulus and Cassie sat on the far ends of the sofa with Sirius shifting nervously between the two of them, Walburga walked around her husband's chair, stopping by it's left side and placing a hand on his shoulder. Cassandra reached out, taking a cup of tea and a biscuit, slowly dipping it into the hot tea and eating the cinnamon flavoured wafer.

"We have been thinking, with the recent marriage of Narcissa into the Malfoy family, we'd be delighted to look forward to another unison under our roof…" Walburga spoke while squeezing Orion's shoulder, who returned the affection by patting her hand.

Regulus and Cassandra looked utmost confused while Sirius slowly put the pieces together.

"You can't be serious…" He whispered under his breath.

Giving a stern look to her eldest child, Walburga continued. "Since, Regulus and Cassandra here are such good friends, Orion and I will see with your parents Cassie, to arrange a marriage, in, perhaps, three or four years time?"

"What…?" Cassandra's face drained of blood as her mind raced of what they had offered to her. The tea cup dangerously started to shake and Sirius quickly reached out and grabbed it out of her hands before she spilled it all over herself.

Regulus looked even worse, he tilted down, with his head in his hands, shaking his head.

"You… you, can't be, serious? Regulus is like a brother to me! I would never… my mother will never agree to this!" Cassandra gathered her thoughts and lashed out without thinking. Walburga flashed her a nasty look making the girl fall back in the sofa, out of fear.

"Combining our two houses has never been more prevalent! I'll have a word with your mother… you may be excused." Walburga's smile had all but disappeared from her face as she still pondered on the idea of a possible future marriage.

Cassandra quickly stood up and on wobbly legs dashed out of the living area and started climbing towards her room. However, half-way up the stairs she had to sit down in order to stop herself from shaking.

Taking deep breaths she tilted forwards as a surge of emotions flew over her, each threatening to overflow her already full emotional glass.

About a minute later she felt someone sitting next to her and she jerked up, half-expecting to find Regulus. However as she looked up, Sirius' face greeted hers and she backed up quickly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you…"

Shaking her head, Cassandra only lowered it back again, sighing deeply. Her head spinning as she wondered if her mother would actually agree to the outrageous proposal… _No, of course she wouldn't, would she? _Her mind raced.

Sirius sat next to her quietly, more like a mental support rather than giving any actual support. Though, what was he supposed to do? He's used to making jokes about his own fucked up life, and didn't know how to help out when the same was happening to someone else.

He shook his head, sighing as well, next to the scrunched up girl.

"Listen…" He patted her on the back making her lift her head up, sorrow oozing out of the girl's eyes. "Go to sleep, Dad won't be home tomorrow and Mom will be taking care of the dinner and house order for Christmas… after breakfast, I'll take you out and you can take a breather from everything…"

Cassandra pondered her options for a moment and then nodded. She didn't know why Sirius was helping her out, but any help at this moment was good for the overwhelmed girl. With his help she stood up and slowly proceeded to her bedroom.

As they entered it, the candle chandelier lit up revealing the half-folded clothes still in her suitcase, waiting to be placed with the others in the wardrobe and Cerin nestled in her suitcase sleeping soundly.

Not wanting to wake her cat up Cassie just sighed and carefully took her pajamas out of the side pocket and placed it next to the pillow.

Turning to Sirius, Cassandra noticed for the first time that his eyes weren't dark chocolate as his brother's, rather a murky shade of gray in which a lot of sadness seemed to hide.

He made several attempts to console the girl, but eventually gave up and shook his head.

"Tomorrow, count on it. And once your parents are back, they can refuse with you…" Sirius patted Cassie on her shoulder and then swiftly left her room.

The girl wondered again what had gotten into him, but decided not to torment herself thinking about it, taking her clothes from the bed and going to the bathroom.

After showering, brushing her teeth and hair, applying all the necessary skin ointments her mother had given her because of her usually dry skin, Cassie finally slumped down on her bed, and immediately fell asleep as her head touched the pillow.

* * *

"_Cassie…" Her mother's voice echoed around her in the vast nothingness. Standing only in her nightgown, Cassandra looked around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from._

"_Cassie…" She continued to sing._

"_Mom?" The girl replied and was immediately startled by a more urgent request._

"_Cassandra? Cassie?!" Her mother's voice became frantic, almost screaming her child's name._

"_Mom, where are you?" Cassandra tried moving but the darkness was not faltering, and her mother's echo was everywhere around her._

"_Cassie help me!" Suddenly a piercing scream echoed and Cassie had to clasp her hands around her ears. "Cassie!"_

_The pain in her mother's voice made the girl crouch and hold back tears. She closed her eyes, not knowing where to go or how to help._

"_Cassandra…" _

_The hushed voice came from her side. She immediately opened her eyes and saw a bright, shining light shimmering and drawing her towards it. Running, she almost fell down, but managing to hold her balance the light widened and suddenly she was standing in a large hallway._

_At the end of the hallway stood her mother in a white wedding dress, standing next to a tall broom, someone too tall for her father. The unsightly scene halted the the bewildered girl._

"_Mom!"_

_But as Cassandra yelled and started running again towards her, Eileen smiled and turned around, grabbing the broom by the hand and started walking away from her daughter._

_As she ran, Cassie noticed red rose petals, scattered around the floor, and running, barefoot through them, she realized that the petals turned to blood and her mother's wedding dress was now tainted with it._

_The bride and groom were too far away from the shaken girl when they stopped and both turned their heads towards her. Cassandra immediately recognized Regulus' father, Orion Black, however his facial features were distorted, his eyes were unnaturally black and his cheek bones were protruding through his skin._

_Long claws on his finger nails further more accentuated his unnatural look. _

_And as the girl stood in shock, the pair moved. Orion's hands clasped around her mother's neck, and she slowly turned towards her daughter, with the same, silent smile plastered on her face._

"_Mom!" Cassie barely managed to move when the creature severed her head, _

jolting the girl up with a scream.

Sirius jumped, as the girl continued to cry, and scream for her mother.

"Hey, hey, hey! It's okay, you're okay snakey!" He tried to reason with her but Cassandra could not hear him. She grabbed his arms, crying, barely realizing she was still in bed, in her worn out pj's, safe and sound.

Not knowing how to calm the girl down Sirius wrapped his hands around her shoulders, bringing her into a hug and hushing her down.

"It's okay, you're safe…"

"My mom…" Cassandra choked on her tears trying to let everything out.

"She's safe too… hush now, everything will be alright…" Sirius calmly replied.

"How do you know that? She's somewhere in Europe, who know what could have happened with that guy Voldemort out…" Cassandra cried out clutching to Sirius' shirt, as her tears continued to stream down her face. She failed to notice a slight twitch in Sirius's expression at the mention of Lord Voldemort.

"She's fine, mom heard from them this morning, they chatted through the fireplace, but had to end quickly because it might be tracked… that's why they didn't wake you up… they're okay Cassie…" That was the first time he referred to her without calling her 'snakey' and finally Cassandra calmed down, shivering from both the cold and the nightmare.

"It was so real Sirius…" Her whisper whimpered and he quickly wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, also moving her out of his arms in the process.

He still lingered next to her on bed, with a large wet stain on his shirt's left side.

"I know snakey, but don't worry, they're okay, trust me…" Sirius gave her one of his good-natured smiles trying really hard to cheer her up.

"You're calling me that again… yet you said my name a few seconds ago." Cassandra directed a meaningful look towards the boy who turned his head away from her immediately.

"I just… I don't think it would be wise if I started calling you by your name, if we became friends… when you're…" His voice faltered at the end and he quickly stood up heading towards the exit.

"Because I'm what? A Slytherin? Or because I'm to be engaged to your brother? Is that why you've been even paying any mind to me at all? Because you knew?" Cassandra suddenly jumped up, turning him towards herself, but instead of a shameful look on his face she saw a sour smile, filled with grief.

"No snakey, because you, you are different…"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"I'm different?" Cassandra asked, hiding a laugh, her eyes immediately lighting up as remnants of anger dispersed from them. "What kind of a nonsense is that? Am I some kind of alien?"

Sirius shook his head trying to figure out the best approach to this matter. "You remind me the most of Lily, yet you're also very different from her, you're not like typical Slytherins and you care for my brother… you confronted me about him, and that alone speaks volumes about you as a person… but again, you are a Slytherin and just that fact… is why I think we shouldn't become friends."

Cassie blinked several times trying to figure out what he said. _He mentioned Lily… the red-haired girl that talks with Severus sometimes? Why would he… _She shook her head trying to change her train of thoughts. As the rest of his sentence dawned upon her, the familiar burning anger that could kill of a horde of inferi, if it was possible_, _returned to her bright eyes and she glared towards Sirius.

"Just because of my house, you refuse to become friends, to hang out with me as more than a brother's friend, to actually give a damn?"

"Well I mean, your parents, they're also good friends with my parents and that itself is a very big no-no from me, I mean, mother and father are on the verge of disowning me for being Gryffindor…" Sirius shook his head. Looking the other way, he sighed, took a deep breath and slowly gazed back at her with his big puppy eyes, color of those prowling thunderstorm clouds.

"A war is coming snakey, and although the fact you're a Slytherin might not mean anything today, tomorrow or the day after Christmas… in a year or two, it will, and you'll be glad you won't have to choose sides."

Finishing his spiel, he turned to leave the room, only briefly stopping by the door.

"Oh, and mother wanted me to come and get you for breakfast… I… I'll wait for you in my room, if you still wish to escape this house for a couple of hours come by, but if you don't… I'll understand."

And finally, flashing her one of his grins, Sirius left the room. Cassandra wondered, no, she _knew_, that his smile, his charming smile she had seen so many times, was very much fake, and that it was all for show, to put on a brave face, and hide behind his scars.

For some reason though, Cassandra wished to help him, rather than stay away from him. _I'll prove to him that Slytherins and Gryffindors can be friends, _she thought to herself_, and even if there is a war coming, why is it expected of me to choose sides? Is it going to be a war between the houses?_

These kinds of thoughts never left her even after getting dressed and going downstairs to eat. Mr. Black was nowhere to be seen and Cassandra prayed it stayed like that. After the nightmare she had last night, the girl was not too keen on seeing him again. Mrs. Black on the other hand was going around giving orders to her house elf. The poor thing was jumping behind her all the time trying to remember everything, and if he did anything poorly Walburga Black would smack him across the face.

Cassie twitched each time she heard the poor elf's whimpers, but still accepted his mistress' orders and after she had told him everything he disappeared with a pop.

Finishing her breakfast, Cassie quickly tried to leave the kitchen but was confronted by Walburga in the hallway.

"Cassandra. "The woman's cold smile did not leave a good impression on Cassie. "Please, join me for a cup of tea in the lounge area."

And with a swish of her wand an enchanted tray, carrying two teacups, teapot and some biscuits rushed from the kitchen and started following the woman towards what seemed like a smaller room with antiques in it.

Seeing no way out without being too suspicious, Cassie followed the woman, thinking of a plan on how to escape this tea party.

As they entered the little secluded area, Cassandra noticed immediately that the wall behind the gray sofa was covered in a tapestry of the entire Black family. She stopped by it, taking a look at some of the names, and noting that some were burnt off the tapestry. Cassandra wondered why, but dared not to ask. Looking around she also noticed a wide vitrine with various memorabilia and antiques that seemed more valuable than her entire house. Noting that to herself, the girl vowed not to go near it, in fear of breaking something.

Placing the tray on a small mahogany coffee table, Walburga sat down and started pouring them tea.

"Sit dear, the tea's getting cold."

Obediently, Cassie sat down, quietly taking her tea and a biscuit from the table. The same cinnamon flavor overwhelmed her taste buds and she enjoyed the sweet taste compared with the bitterness of the tea.

"Now… I had a conversation with your parents this morning, it was very brief though. However, we did not come to an agreement…" Walburga said with a seemingly victorious look in her eyes that she tried to hide behind an apparently sad expression. "Orion was quite keen to have you wed into our family; however, your mother doesn't seem to share his opinions… Leo reassured us though, however it seems that for now, that idea, will remain just that, an idea!"

Not catching that the woman seemed pretty glad about that fact, Cassandra sighed a breath of relief and nodded. "I knew mom would never agree to that."

"Of course she wouldn't, she's a half-blood, what could she possibly know about the importance of two families joining houses?" Walburga snarled causing Cassie to glare at the woman.

"No, rather she cares more for the happiness of her daughter than a stupid ideology!" Cassandra said after a few moments, swallowing her biscuit and gulping down the rest of the hot tea. "It was a pleasure chatting with you; however, the bitterness did not suit me and I would like to retreat to my room."

And not allowing a reply, Cassandra quickly scaled the stairs and found herself in front of Sirius' door.

Still slightly annoyed with his and his mother's words, she knocked on the door not wanting others to hear she was there.

Some rustling could be heard from the other side, and suddenly the door flew open as the surprised Sirius looked at the huffy witch in front of his door.

"May I come in?" She said through gritted teeth, and without allowing a reply barged into the room. As she entered the bedroom, a strong, pleasant smell of male deodorant filled her nostrils and bright red and gold decorations caught her attention.

As much as he could, Sirius decorated his room in Gryffindor colors. Silky, crimson colored sheets laid ruffled on his bed and all over the walls, Gryffindor banners were put up, alongside a couple of muggle photographs as well. They seemed to have been taken out of a magazine, and Cassie involuntarily clicked her tongue after realizing that muggle girls wore nothing but their bikinis in the photos.

To her right, a large smooth desk was covered in letters. Some of which she managed to notice were written from James Potter to Sirius Black. The large window on the opposite side of Cassie was letting in as much light as it could, with the drapes fully to the side in order to let the most light in.

Having noted most of the things, Cassie turned back to notice a very confused Sirius Black still standing under his door frame.

"So… when are we going?" She almost barked at Sirius.

"Uhm, well, we can go right now, or do you want to sit down and tell me what got you so flustered up?" Sirius offered, still looking confused about the entire situation.

"Best not to, don't want to make friends, remember?" Cassandra scowled at him and then immediately bit the inside of her mouth for saying that.

Hurt seemed to flash in Sirius' eyes, but he quickly shook it off, nodded, took his jacket from the wardrobe and then stopped looking over Cassie.

"Won't you grab something to cover yourself? It's pretty chilly outside." He remarked. Cassandra looked at her woolen jumper and shook her head.

"I have a shirt under it, should be good enough." Her voice sounded much less aggressive than a few seconds ago. Turning on her heel, the girl almost ran out of the bedroom and into the hallway.

Sirius grabbed her hand, motioning her to be quiet and then quickly unlocked the door, pulling her outside before anyone could notice.

Finally outside, Cassandra took a deep breath and then jumped in to the puffy snow. The air felt stiff, definitely not what she was used to, but given what was waiting for her inside the house again, she decided to ignore it and enjoy it to the fullest.

"C'mon, I promised to take you out into town not to the front yard." Sirius gripped her by the elbow and carried her along.

"I can walk by myself, thank you very much." Cassandra hissed through gritted teeth and pulled out her hand from his grip.

They walked out of the neighborhood, leaving behind them the murky feeling of emptiness.

The winter sunlight warmed them up, and as they walked around, Cassie noticed some kids who were sledging over a small hill near a kindergarten. She stopped to observe them, to which Sirius reacted.

"Do you want to go sledging?" He bobbed his head looking at the children.

Shaking her head, Cassandra replied. "No, I just miss being… carefree like that… huh I'm fourteen years old and it feels like I'm forty…"

With a sigh, the girl started walking down the street to a seemingly busier part of the city.

Sirius walked beside her until they left the alleyway and found themselves in the city center. He once again grabbed her hand, this time lightly, only motioning her to follow him, more as a request than an order and started walking south. After passing a couple of muggle shops, they took a left turn and ended up in a slightly darker alleyway.

Wearily stepping into it, Cassie followed him through the narrow passages and finally they ended up in front of a tea shop.

Sirius' eyes gleamed with pride as he showed her the cozy tea shop and Cassie barely stopped herself from straight out dissing the _'vintage looking, oversized dollhouse'_. An old dusty wooden board was hung above the tea shop, indicating the name was Bubbling Sparkle Pot.

On the outside, very pastel colors decorated the inviting window and the old, rusty door had a sign that said OPEN. From the window, Cassie could see several couples sitting inside what appeared to be a cartoonishly designed interior. She wondered why Sirius had decided to take her there, out of all the places.

Sensing her hesitation, Sirius rolled his eyes and once again pulled her with him towards the tea shop.

"C'mon, it has a lot of great tea for relaxing, and it's not a muggle shop, trust me." He whispered into her ear, softly brushing his lips against her earlobe. It was due to several muggles who were walking down the less busy street, however Cassie's mind took a path she did not want it to take, as she shivered from the sensation.

Pulling away from him, she just nodded, to which he smirked. Taking her by the hand they slowly sauntered over to the door but instead of pulling it as the sign suggested, Sirius turned the door knob and pushed the door in, revealing a completely different scenery. The interior was no longer childish-looking. The wallpapers in the shop got replaced by cold, dark gray bricks and crystal chandeliers. Red tables from the previous shop were replaced by cool, umber booths which resonated well in such an environment.

Behind a steel counter stood a witch, who immediately lifted her head to greet new customers. However, upon noticing Sirius she smiled widely and quickly rushed to greet them. Her onyx hair with a few strands of white hair was tied into a messy bun atop of her head. As she walked, all of the beads she wore on her neck and wrists rustled. Her dress, color of dried sage, added to the rustle as it dragged along behind her.

"Sirius my boy, how are you doing?" She grabbed his hands and then shifted her attention towards Cassandra. "And who may this be…?'

"Uh, Cas… Snakey here is just a friend…" Scratching his head Sirius avoided looking at Cassandra.

"Just a friend huh?" The old witch's eyes glinted with hidden hope. "Well then, you'll be wanting your booth then, I suppose?"

Before either of them could respond, she had already turned around and started walking through the shop. As she looked around, she constantly signaled them to follow her while she murmured something under her breath.

"... too open"

"... too loud"

"... too dark… ah perfect!" She finally stopped by one of the furthest booths. It was small enough to fit four people, however, the candlelit atmosphere gave off a very intimate mood, making Cassie blush as the witch ushered them to sit down.

"Now what shall we have for drinks?" The witch asked, clasping her hands together.

"Two Pippleplum teas please…" Sirius murmured and the witch happily hopped off to make their teas.

"Pippleplum?" Cassandra mouthed, not wanting to seem uneducated or stupid. Sirius just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"They're some mumbo jumbo potions she makes and sells as teas, nothing dangerous of course and super easy to make… just a bit stronger than traditional muggle teas…" He explained. "It'll take some time for them to brew, so why don't you tell me, what got you agitated so much?"

Cassandra hesitated for a moment, wondering if it would truly be wise to talk to him about how Walburga basically insulted her mother. A tremble escaped her lips and she finally realized that through her anger, she left her jacket at home, and sitting next to a window with no direct sunlight, was pretty chilly at this time of the year. The soft shiver did not escape Sirius' watchful gaze.

"Sit here next to me, it's warmer." Sirius tapped the seat next to him and begrudgingly the girl moved. He placed his jacket around her, instantly warming her up a bit. She realized there was a fireplace right behind his seat, however the fire was out and only cinder remained, meaning it did not warm up the place as much as it should have.

As Cassie finally braced herself to speak, they heard the door open. The cold wind rushed through the door as the witch on the counter gleefully exclaimed.

"Mrs. Black! So good of you to visit us! Just in time, Sirius is here as well!"

Cassandra watched all blood from Sirius' face drain, as Walburga Black turned around to look towards the children sitting in a dimly light booth, slightly snuggled up together, with Sirius' jacket around Cassie's shoulders.

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! Been a long time since I did this little segment here. I know this part was a little bit stale but hopefully you liked it! Be sure to review if you have any comments or questions! Thank you again for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the long delay, I had a bit of a writers block going on and had rewritten this chapter a couple of times. I hope that this final edition is up to par with my usual chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 11

The icy gaze Walburga Black had towards Sirius was enough to send a chill down Cassandra's spine again. She moved away quickly, not wanting to send a wrong message to the woman, however, she only managed to shift the gaze to herself.

It seemed to lessen up, as if the woman only now realized that she was seated next to him.

"My my, what a sight to behold! Why didn't you say, dear, that you were interested in older boys, I could have suggested something to Orion!" Her poisoned words spewn towards Cassandra caught her off guard and her mouth fell open in shock.

Noticing their blood drained faces, Walburga smirked, turning around towards the visibly uncomfortable witch behind her.

"Cecilia dear, please bring me what we discussed about a few days ago." The cold tone in her voice never left and Cecilia shifted uncomfortably with a quiet 'eek', darting quickly towards a hidden door behind the counter.

As she left, the familiar feeling of being glared at returned towards the two teenagers who tried their best to avoid Mrs. Black's gaze.

Sirius looked visibly stressed, eyes darting from Cassie, to the exit, to his mother and then back to Cassie again.

"I assure you mother, this was all my doing, I took her out on my own in order to cheer her up, she is as much of a friend to me as she is to Regulus!" Sirius' voice cracked as he pleaded with his mother's scornful glare. His regular playfulness and snarky attitude was gone, worry taking over as the situation spiraled out of his control.

Walburga scoffed and returned her attention to Cassandra.

"I did not believe you were right for my Regulus, now I am more than convinced you do not belong within our household, not even taking into consideration your half-mudblooded nature!"

"Mrs. Black, please, I did not intend…" Cassandra stuttered, visibly shaken by her brazen words. The thought of her ruining the relationship between their parents, and possibly getting kicked out certainly crossed her mind.

"Do not worry silly child, Leo is still a dear friend to my husband and I. You're still more than welcome to stay as a guest, but do not expect any more courtesy than that." Walburga's words cut through the tension in the cafe.

Cecilia emerged a few moments later from the hidden passage behind her counter carrying a basket, covered by a checkered cloth. She offered the basket to Walbruga with a soft voice and the witch finally stopped her tirade, turning to eye the evidently, quite uncomfortable, woman.

Taking out a pouch with coins, she gave five galleons to Cecilia and stormed out of the shop.

"Oh dear God, I'm terribly sorry for that kids, had I known she would've reacted in such way I would have warned you about her arrival when you entered the shop! Good heavens, I thought my heart would stop from the tension…" Taking deep breaths, she turned around to finally fix their drinks. "Now, 4 sickles please, and do apologize to your mother dear boy, you'll be sorry if you continue like this."

Sirius took out the money and paid for the two bubbling teas. Taking a whiff of her tea, Cassandra first thought it smelled like carrots, but having a sip she was pleasantly surprised by a sweet taste which she couldn't exactly pinpoint to any fruits. At first it had quite a strong melon like flavour but as she drank it, it slowly dissolved in to a familiar taste of pippleplum. Overall, Cassandra enjoyed the dissipated state as she completely relaxed in hear seat, closing her eyes, warmth slowly spreading all around her body.

For a second she might have dozed off but when her eyes fluttered open again, she noticed that not a lot has changed and that Sirius was intently staring at her. Although her skin was already flushed from the warm potion's effects, Cassandra still managed to blush at the thought of Sirius watching her as she enjoyed the tea.

"It's quite the peculiar tea, if brewed correctly it can be the most amazing relaxation potion without any adverse or strong effects, whereas if you screw it up you'll just get a bland tasting tea with no special effects." He smirked and drank a gulp of his own. The worry seemingly disappeared from the boy, but his shaking hands did not persuade the Cassie that he was alright. She did not want to pester him even more after the whole ordeal and took another sip of her tea.

Sirius seemed pretty used to it and did not even blink nor in any way show that he was affected.

Focusing to her own tea, she noticed that as she drank the tea the bubbling never stopped, however, the intensity slowly subsided and Cassandra noticed that her second sip was not as impactful as the first.

But after finishing the rest of the tea, her mind was at ease and the worries seemed so distant from her life.

"Well, whatever it is, it's working…"

* * *

Half an hour later they left the tea shop, and were met by a much more crowded street as muggles went about their daily lives, hastily preparing for Christmas.

Cassandra observed them and her own mind went over the fact she needed to get presents for everyone, having completely forgotten about it.

Halting in the middle of the street, she grabbed Sirius by the hem of his shirt and tugged him back.

"I need to go to Diagon Alley."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion from the sudden request. "Why…?"

"I forgot to buy presents and Christmas is the day after tomorrow!" Her eyes scanned the streets trying to figure out how to get back to King's cross and then to figure out a path from there to Diagon Alley if Sirius refused to take her.

Sirius pondered for a few seconds before nodding.

"C'mon, it's about half an hour by foot from here…"

Slowly, while walking towards Diagon Alley, the two slowly set aside the encounter with his mother and chatted away, joking and teasing. When Cassandra mentioned Lisa, Sirius cackled at the memory of her friend blasting away Amy.

"Hey don't laugh! It was a serious thing back then, she got in trouble!" Cassie playfully hit Sirius on the hand as they arrived in front of the Leaky Cauldron.

The black door opened revealing a lively atmosphere within the pub. Thankfully not many paid attention to their entrance and continued with their friendly banter.

Quickly passing by the unassuming witches and wizards they moved to the back room and tapped on the bricks revealing the snow covered Diagon Alley to Sirius and Cassandra.

Several shops were closed due to holidays however Cassie managed to find an antique shop that was opened and hopped inside.

Sirius followed suite and looked around himself, grabbing some trinkets and books along the way and stopping to check out a seemingly ordinary mirror as well.

Cassandra found a music box that was enchanted to sing out the chorus of the favorite song of whomever was holding the trinket. Due to the intricate details and the seeming muggleness of it, Cassie decided to buy it for Lisa.

As she took it off its shelf, she noticed a small book of muggle poetry sitting on the shelf next to it. Curious she also took the book and flipping through it, noticed that although it was muggle poetry the pictures in it were moving.

_Sirius liked muggle things…_ Her mind trailed off as she decided to buy that as well. Only thing left now was to figure out what to buy for Isaac and Regulus.

Rummaging a little bit more through the shop she happened to find two sets of chess pieces, one white and one black. The image of the boys frequently playing chess was deeply imprinted in her mind, and without sparing a second she knew this was the perfect gift to get them.

As she turned around to find the shopkeeper, she saw the old man chatting with Sirius.

"... and a two-way mirror. Is that all, young sir?" He smiled to the teen. Sirius shook his head, handed him a couple of galeons and took his bag of goodies.

Cassandra inquisitively looked at the bag as the man gave him change and then turned to Cassie.

Putting everything aside the man started to count the total of everything.

"That will be 22 galeons and 4 sickles."

Handing the man the exact amount and quickly snatching her things, the girl turned to Sirius who was waiting for her near the exit.

"What'd you get?" She hopped to him.

"Some trinkets for James, Remus and Peter… and Regulus…" Sirius shrugged off evading her curious gaze. "Wanna go to the bakery down the street? I heard they have killer bagels!"

The sudden switch in the subject indicated to Cassie to let go of the subject so she did, and agreed to visit the shop. Though puzzled why Sirius avoided talking about the gifts, the girl did not want to push his limits even more. It had passed several hours since the morning incident, and she was already feeling much lighter and better, even after the entire encounter with his mother again at the magical tea shop.

Quite frankly, Cassandra was thankful he handled that situation the way he did and tried to deescalate it. Out of gratitude she followed along down the street as Sirius babbled all about these bagels he had once eaten with his brother.

The bakery down the road was a jolly little place, with a couple of wizards and witches sitting inside around the round tables and happily eating their ice cream, pancakes and bagels.

"I don't feel like sitting down, how about we get the bagels and walk around Diagon Alley a bit?" Cassandra suggested.

Nodding Sirius ordered two bagels, paid and gave Cassie one covered with dust and chocolate.

"We'll have to get going soon though, it'll take us an hour to get home and mother dearest does not want us to miss dinner tonight either."

Sighing, Cassie nodded and dug into the chocolate covered bagel with a peculiar, yet quite delicious powdery dust.

* * *

A/N: Oof, it took me about 2 weeks or more to finish this chapter. Sorry for such a long delay however here is the chapter, it's a bit shorter but I managed to finish it in spite of the writer's block! Thank you all who's reading and reviewing! It means a lot to me!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_Christmas morning_

Cassandra woke up around five AM, stretching out her hands and sighing, knowing that in a week she'll be back at Hogwarts and won't have to deal with the Black family again. The presents she planned for her friends were neatly packed in colorful wrapping paper and stood on the side of her desk.

Lisa's present for her was still waiting to be opened on the dresser and as Cassie finally stood up from her bed, she called out the house elf. "Kreacher?"

A few long seconds later, the elf warily popped to her room and observed the girl. "Yes, miss Fawley? How may I be of service?"

His slow raspy voice seemed suspicious of her but the girl tried to lighten up the mood.

"Merry Christmas Kreacher! May I ask you to silently place these presents in Sirius' and Regulus' room? The red one is for Sirius and the blue one is for Regulus." Her smile although a bit forced seemed to lift his spirits up, so the elf took the presents, glanced towards her again and with a nod apparated away.

Before Cassie could even get dressed, he apparated back and informed her that he managed to do it without waking the boys up.

"Excellent! Thank you Kreacher!" She beamed with happiness confusing the poor elf even more with her thankfulness. The present for Isaac was sent out the day before by the Black family's barn owl and Lisa's present laid tucked in her suitcase. She would give it to her the day when they returned to Hogwarts.

Seeing as the witch had no other requests from the elf he bowed and popped out of her room again. Getting dressed, the girl brushed her hair and teeth and finally sat down to open the present Lisa had gave her.

Taking off the wrapping paper she revealed a small, wooden box with neat decorations and carvings on the sides. Opening it, one immaculate pearl-grey glove popped out alongside a white note. She quickly took the note to read what it said.

'_This will help with your writing and your hand will never get tired as long as you wear it!' _

Cassie smiled at her friend's thoughtfulness, remembering the couple of times she had complained when taking notes. She put the glove on her right hand and took the quill, instantly feeling it become lighter, easily following each and every of her commands, neatly writing down whatever she thought of writing. The glove itself looked magical, with neat light runes alongside the right part as it covered only the last two fingers right under the phalanges. The rest of the lightweight material flowed smoothly over her palm and up to her wrist.

After admiring the intricate work for a few moments, she took it off and placed it neatly into her suitcase next to Lisa's own present.

Seeing as barely half an hour had passed, Cassie decided to take her homework and slowly start working on it as it was quite a lot of assignments and time was running out.

"Write down the known uses for the Banishing Charm, Summoning Charm and the Mending Charm, taking into consideration the right incantation and wand movements, making sure not to mix either of the three!" A long sighed escaped her mouth as the girl flipped through her Charms book and worked on the assignment.

What infuriated the girl even more was the fact she couldn't use magic outside of Hogwarts and practice these charms. They had already done all three charms back at Hogwarts but still it was easier to describe everything through practice rather than memory.

Having lost herself in her work, she failed to hear a soft knock on her door and was slightly frightened when Regulus suddenly opened them.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were still asleep." The boy meekly smiled, fidgeting a present in his hands.

"I saw that you left a present for me, so I uh… brought you something. Merry Christmas."

He handed her a neatly wrapped rectangular present. Smiling, Cassandra took the present and hugged her friend. "Merry Christmas to you too Reg, did you like your present?"

He nodded sitting down on her bed and waiting for her to open the present. "My own set was pretty worn out so thank you for it, I really liked it."

Seeing as he eyed the present in her hands, Cassandra set down her quill and started carefully unwrapping the tightly sealed present.

As she took the first layer off, she realized he had given her a book with deep purple covers, titled _Jinxes for the Jinxed._

"Since you seemed pretty into charms and potions, I thought you might like this book." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly wondering if he had managed to pick out the right present.

Cassandra smiled as she flipped through the book and then quickly closed it.

"Don't let Lisa know what you got me; I fear Amy might find her stuff…" She paused checking the book out again. "… turned into chicken or geese!"

They both chuckled as Regulus got up. "I'm glad you like it, breakfast will be in 10 minutes…"

He paused at the door, letting go of the handle, as if he was contemplating whether to add something more. "Cassie, just… ignore my mom okay? She, uh, doesn't like it when you talk back, and likes to pester even more if you do…"

Cassandra smiled shaking her head. "I know, that's why I've been hiding in my room… especially after she caught Sirius and I in that tea shop…"

A shadow of confusion washed over Regulus' face as he tried to figure out what she said, and curiosity seemed to win, forcing him to ask his question.

"Sirius and... you? Since when have the two of you… been hanging out?"

"Oh, well, yesterday he only asked if I wanted to go out and explore around London a bit, to get some fresh air and clear out my mind after the catastrophe…"

Regulus chuckled and nodded. "I'm glad he accepts at least one Slytherin…"

As he said that, Cassandra remembered what Sirius said about their friendship. She wondered why he had so much animosity towards their house, but again the witch didn't ponder too long on it, as she devised a plan in her head. Cunning as she might be, the only part of the plan so far was to get Cerin to somehow lure Sirius away and talk to her at Hogwarts… However, as she glanced at her sleeping, stubborn cat, Cassie knew that even that part of the plan would be hard to achieve.

Just then, the door flung open, hitting Regulus straight across the face. "Breakfast in 5… oh, Regulus, you're here as well…"

Sirius stood at the door frame wearing a white cotton shirt and gray pajama bottoms. He seemed to have woken up just a few moments ago and went straight to Cassandra's bedroom.

She blushed at the thought and tried to avert her gaze from both of the boys.

"We'll let's go then, don't want to be late for breakfast now, do we?"

Regulus nodded absentmindedly and quickly scuttled away but when Cassandra tried moving past Sirius he stopped her, loosely catching her wrist.

"Won't I get a 'Merry Christmas' at least?"

He teased as her blue eyes darted to his hand and then back to his face, examining this playful emotion after everything that happened the other day, wondering how much of a facade it was.

Noticing that the girl tensed up, Sirius warily let go of her wrist, worry flashing for a second over his tired eyes.

"Oh, yes, Merry Christmas." Realizing her mistake Cassandra tried to quickly lighten up the mood and Sirius seemed to welcome the change, quickly plastering a smile again and hugging the girl.

"I don't have a present for you, if you had told me you'd buy one for me I would have gotten something for you as well… henceforth, you get one of my special, bone crushing hugs!" Just as he finished his sentence, Sirius squeezed the life out of Cassandra and she yelped out of surprise and the sound of her spine cracking.

"Ow, you idiot! That hurt!" She said through a painful giggle, playfully hitting Sirius' shoulder blade.

"I'm not that keen on books, Moony is more of a person for books but I'll give this one a try…" He grinned. "But I know it's by muggle authors, fits my room just perfectly!"

"Moony?" Cassandra caught the slip of that nickname and questionably looked at Sirius as they descended the stairs.

"Uhh, yeah, Remus' nickname… he likes staying up late, studying…" Sirius averted his gaze quickly as they halted before his bedroom. "Well, I should probably get dressed, you go ahead and I'll join later…"

Without giving Cassie a chance to speak up he quickly bolted towards his room and closed the door. She stood there for a few seconds confused with what had happened, nevertheless she shook her head and proceeded to the dining room.

As she entered the neat room, Kreacher slightly bowed and few plates followed by a tea cup and a tray of biscuits flew towards the table, landing with ease and awaiting her arrival.

The dining room table was set up with various different dishes and desserts. Following her plate and tray she sat at the table, quite surprised that only she and Regulus were there.

The boy on the other hand was sitting quietly in his chair glancing around, unsure what to do, and whether to eat or wait.

Unsure whether to eat herself, she took the cup of tea and started drinking it, ever so often dunking a biscuit into the chamomile tea.

Finally, Sirius showed up and fronted with just the two of them, he stopped at the door-frame. He eyed suspiciously everything in the room and then turned to Kreacher.

"Oi, Maggot! Where is the malevolent spirit hiding? She can't have disappeared on Christmas morning!"

Kreacher scowled at Sirius and turned his back to him. At that moment, Regulus also spoke up.

"Sirius sit down. Kreacher, please tell us where mother is, we would like to start eating."

His stomach growled as Kreacher's gaze softened towards Regulus. "Master Regulus, Missus is off on some important business today and will not return until the evening. Master Black is in his study if you need him, as for the food you may start eating, Master Black ate his breakfast in the study."

And with foul look of disgust pointed at Sirius, Kreacher snapped his fingers causing the chair to slip under Sirius. Nearly falling to the ground, Sirius glared at the elf who smiled wickedly and disappeared with a loud pop.

"I swear, one day, I'm gonna strangle him to death."

"Maybe try being nice to him for a change Sirius." Regulus replied coldly, as he started taking the food from the center.

Cassandra followed suit as an awkward silence fell around them. Sirius still fuming about Kreacher and Regulus completely ignoring the antics of his older brother.

"I saw you were doing homework, do you need any help with it? I've already finished my essay on various antidotes for the potions homework…" The younger brother turned to Cassie who smiled accepting his help. Not that she needed it, but she felt like spending some time with Regulus, especially since Walburga won't be home today to exaggerate things.

Sirius seemed to calm down and now glanced at the exchange between the two of them. He quickly finished his meal, putting a bunch of desserts on a different plate and bidding them farewell, retreating back into his room without so much of a glance back. Probably for the best because both fourteen-year-olds watched him, dumbfounded, dangle the plate around carrying it with difficulty due to the amount of pastries and cupcakes he had on it.

"Your brother is quite… peculiar." Cassandra giggled and saw Regulus smile as well.

"Yeah, he can be wild sometimes, no wonder he's in Gryffindor…" Taking another bite of his meal Regulus sighed, and relaxed in his chair.

"You okay there Reg?" Cassie looked at the boy, noticing dark circles around his eyes, prominent on his sickly ashen skin.

She tried not to worry, convincing herself that it was just the lighting making him look as sick but the feeling of dread did not disappear from the clutches of her guts.

The boy fluttered his eyes open noticing her intense stare at his face. "I'm just… tired, that's all there is Cassie… don't dwell too much on it."

Sensing that Regulus was distancing himself from her, Cassandra wanted to pester him even more to find out what was wrong, but knowing he wouldn't take that well, and probably just close off again she only nodded. "Alright Reg… but if you need someone to talk to, I'm always here, so are Isaac and Lisa, if anything is troubling…"

However, he cut her off before she could finish. "I'm fine. Let it go." His voice firm and cold. Taking the last bite, Regulus stood up and walked out of the dining room.

"Dammit… You couldn't stop, could you Cassandra Fawley? Now he might close off again!" She cursed herself under her breath. "I'll just knock on his door later, in hopes that he still wants to help me with my homework and hope that he hasn't gone haywire once again…"

She continued to eat alone, slowly and steadily tasting everything she could. After about fifteen minutes, Kreacher popped back again, making Cassie twitch as she ate some sort of a chocolate pudding.

"Miss is still eating? Master Regulus sent me to inform you he will be waiting for you in the study on the second floor." With a bow Kreacher turned to leave but Cassie stopped him midway.

"Kreacher!" Quickly standing up the girl ran towards the bewildered elf. "You care about Regulus, right? Is he alright? He seems awfully sickish, but he won't talk to me about it at all!"

Kreacher eyed her warily, seemingly wanting to speak but quickly changing his mind. Shaking his head, as his eyes narrowed down to face her again, the elf spoke: "I cannot help you Miss, that is something I am not permitted to talk about."

Finally bowing down he popped away leaving Cassandra even more confused and worried for Regulus.

Quickly finishing up her meal, the girl jumped from the table and hurried to her room to get her potions notebook and then proceeded to the second floor, looking around to figure out which might be a study room.

It didn't take her long considering that it was right at the end of the hallway, with its doors wide open.

Still, she knocked when entering, and a figure on her left twitched. Regulus looked up, hunched down on the sofa, his head in his hands and surrounded by scattered notebooks on the sofa.

"I see you brought your own homework, I'm glad we think alike." He smiled meekly, taking a dark notebook from the pile. "This is a list of all the antidotes I researched… are there any in particular that you'd like to know about or write about?"

Cassandra paused for a moment, wanting badly to inquire whether he was alright, however, his eyes seemed to plead with her to just let go. With a slight sigh, Cassie sat on the opposite chair, taking his notebook and flipping through it. "Dittany and Sleeping Draught are some that I thought about, but professor Slughorn might not like me choosing some basic antidotes like those…"

"Alright, maybe instead of Dittany you can write about Wound-healing potion? And since you want interesting Winggenweld potion or the Wolfsbane potion would do the trick… wanna start working on those?" Regulus' mood shifted, as he looked genuinely interested and willing to work with her on this task. The atmosphere, melancholic at first, was suddenly bubbly as he instructed Cassandra on what to do and what to write.

The assignment took nearly two hours, as Cassandra managed to mess up her writing a couple of times, and Cerin decided to casually drop by, effectively spilling a bottle of ink on her paper. She managed to salvage as much as she could, but in the end, most of the essay had to be rewritten.

By the time they were done, neither of them was too enthusiastic, Regulus watching meticulously, as Cassandra wrote the last two sentences of her essay.

As she finished her essay, the girl looked around, making sure Cerin was out of sight and neatly folded her work.

Just then she remembered the gift Lisa gave her and grunted, annoyed at her forgetfulness.

"So, you and Sirius, he seemed to have rushed to see you first thing in the morning today… are you sure it's a fairly recent _friendship_?" The way Regulus accentuated the word friendship had Cassandra's eyebrow fly up, watching in dismay as the boy turned red and avoided her look.

"He wanted to wish me Merry Christmas and apologize for not getting me a gift, since I had given one to him…" Her voice was rather firm insinuating that Regulus should watch where he's going with his thoughts, especially since Walburga had claimed the same thing just a few days prior.

"You gave him something…?" The look of surprise on Regulus' face confused Cassandra and cocking her head to the side, she explained how she got him a muggle poem book with magical, moving, illustrations. "Oh… I thought… never mind…"

"What…?" The girl started to inquire, but Regulus, now red as a beet, quickly jumped up and excused himself from the study. "…in the world?"

Getting up, Cassie slowly followed him outside, and witnessed Regulus bumping into Sirius by accident.

"Oi younger offspring of the noble house of Black, do watch where thou walketh next time…" Sirius teased, the book of poems clutched in his right hand.

Seeing him, with the book in his hand Regulus stopped and looked his brother dead in the eye. "Stay away from Cassandra."

Flinching back, Sirius hid his book away and shifted his gaze from his brother, to the staircase, finally landing onto Cassie's face.

"Don't worry, I'm trying to." He whispered back, as Regulus furiously ascended the stairs.

For a moment, Cassandra wondered, what in the world had made Regulus switch from his cheerfulness, to such hostility. And then Sirius' words dawned to her, and a pang of regret and hurt pulsated bluntly in her chest.

There was no reason for her to feel this way, was there? It's not like they'd have been friends for years, no… just recently did they start talking, and running into each other. Just recently did she make progress with the other Black brother… and now, as she stood there, a few meters away from both of them… and she felt as if she was back to square one.

As if somehow a time warp had happened, and brought her back to the start of her first year, when Regulus ignored all of them and Sirius didn't know she existed.

Sirius held her gaze her for a couple of more seconds before finally turning around and walking away, doing his best to ignore Cassandra's lingering stare.

* * *

**A/N**: Hooooo boy, I think I'm finally getting somewhere with this chapter, slowly leaving the realm of exposition and stepping onto the story time.

It took me some time to figure out where I was going with this chapter, and how exactly I would deal with everything going on, but hence the longer chapter.

I hope you like it and I look forward to your reviews. Thank you so much for reading!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Hello my lovelies, sorry for such a long delay, life happened and I couldn't get back to writing. I managed to catch some free time + motivation + inspiration. So sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 13

Several months have passed by since the Christmas break and the argument at the stairs. Whilst Regulus spent more time with her and Lisa, Sirius made his job to avoid her like the plague. Irritated and confused, she caught him alone several times in empty classrooms but he gave a vague excuse each time and slipped out of her grasp.

Regulus on the other hand forced himself to be around her, even when he was quite visibly uncomfortable with the amount of people gathered in the common room.

"Won't you just go to your dorm, Reg?" Cassandra finally snapped one late evening as they finished their charms homework. The next day was Hogsmeade day and many were gathered in the common room to discuss what they'll visit and buy.

Lisa and Isaac were chatting next to them, having finished their work half an hour earlier than them.

Regulus averted his eyes and sighed. "I suppose…" He said. However, as he slowly started to pack up his stuff, he looked back at her and spoke again. "Would you…", he stopped mid-sentence, as his cheeks flushed.

"Would I what?" Cassandra barely even noticed his flustered face as she focused on correcting her assignment.

"Would you like to go to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop with me?" He quickly said, as his cheeks started to redden even more.

Lisa's eyes widened as she slowly turned her head to listen to what Cassandra would reply.

Previous year Cassandra didn't visit much of Hogsmeade so she had no idea what that tea shop was, but remembering the one from Christmas made her long for that special cup of tea which relaxed and warmed her up instantly. "Sure Reg, just lead the way tomorrow." She said, finally looking up from her paper to see Regulus' bewildered face. A bit confused, she wanted to ask him what had happened to him, but before she could speak, he beamed: "Then meet me at one o'clock in front of the Three Broomsticks Inn!"

She tried to utter a few confused questions but Regulus had already disappeared into their dormitory.

Not even a second later Lisa took his spot and stared at Cassandra.

"Lisa?" Cassie asked, even more confused with her best friend's antics.

"Cassandra? Mind explaining yourself?" Lisa said, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the Slytherin common room. Poor Isaac was left sitting alone, looking at the girls as they disappeared away.

"Lisa, it's curfew! We're done if the prefects catch us, or worse, if Filch finds us!" Cassandra protested as Lisa dragged her away, further down the corridors.

"Yeah well, this is more important." Lisa said, as she finally found an empty and unlocked classroom and ushered Cassie inside.

As they entered, Lisa lit up several floating candles around the room to give them some light. Cassandra on the other hand sat at a desk and waited expectantly for her friend to speak.

"So… since when were you and Regulus a thing? And when were you planning on telling me that?" Lisa finally spoke, glee evident in her eyes.

"A thing?" Cassandra asked confused, but as it dawned to her what Lisa meant she exclaimed: "You mean as a couple?!"

"Shh! Don't yell, you'll attract Mrs. Norris!" Lisa shushed her. "Well, yes, he asked you about going to the tea shop with him, that's where couples go!"

Sudden realization hit Cassandra as she recalled Regulus' bewildered, red face and his happiness when she agreed. "I don't… I didn't know that! Since when had Regulus felt like that? He's just a friend Lisa, I swear!"

Disappointment quickly washed over Lisa's face as she wondered if Cassie was telling the truth.

"I mean, you two were always close, I thought you liked him since 3rd year…" Lisa slumped down next to her as she said that.

"I… I don't like Regulus like that…" Cassandra replied, as her mind raced over a different boy, with raven hair and curly eyelashes. Shaking her head, she looked at her best friend. "What do I do? Should I not go then?"

Lisa closed her eyes and shook her head. "Go, but maybe suggest sitting at the Three Broomsticks instead? I'll bring Isaac there at one o'clock… there's your excuse…"

"But what if…" Cassandra didn't get to finish her question when the door of the classroom suddenly opened.

Argus Filch walked inside with a wicked grin plastered over his face. "Breaking curfew, are we?"

Both Lisa and Cassandra tried to explain themselves, however, the old grunt would not listen. He took each of them by the hand and dragged them out of the classroom, heading up the staircase.

Lisa and Cassandra looked at each other, a thought about overpowering the man crossing Cassie's mind, but she quickly shook it off knowing it would just bring them into more trouble.

After a couple flight of stairs Filch finally stopped and opened another door.

"Miss Evans, brought you two more who were out of bed." He dragged the girls inside the classroom, and Cassie's eyes immediately fell to Sirius' face, as he sat next James, in what definitely looked like detention. "I would take care of them myself but Dumbledore asked to see me, I suppose you'll take good care of 'em?"

Lily Evans, who Cassandra only now noticed was standing at the far back of the classroom nodded, and Filch finally let them go, exiting the classroom.

"20 points from Slytherin." Lily said, her eyes narrowing down to their uniforms. "Just sit down and do some writing, I'm not gonna punish you too hard, unlike somebody…"

Her glare could burn a hole through the ground, and she directed it straight at James Potter and Sirius Black.

"C'mon Evans, you know we were only joking!" James said, stretching out in his chair. "You've kept us here for over an hour!"

"And you will stay for even more until you've learnt your lesson!" Her glare remained on James until another knock on the door, distracted both of them. The girls, caught in an awkward spot quickly scooted to a desk and took some papers and quills which Lily handed to them.

The door opened to greet Remus Lupin and professor Flitwick. Remus Lupin looked like he had seen some better days. He looked sick again, with deep, dark circles around his eyes, and an unnatural yellow tone of his skin. Beads of sweat coated his forehead and Cassandra was worried for a moment he might pass out.

"Evans, heard you have your hands full here, and Professor Flitwick needs someone to help him organize his papers." Lupin spoke first, quickly glancing between the girls and the boys. "Say I relieve you of the boys…"

"There will be no need, I have more work for them to do, take these two, they just arrived anyway." Lily responded angrily. James' hopeful gaze turned into a sly smile and he nudged Sirius while whispering something to him. Caught off guard Sirius snorted causing Lily's murderous stare to land on him. Lifting his hands just as the girls stood up, he accidentally caught Cassandra's gaze and held it for a moment.

It was only for a second, but Cassie was sure she saw a flash of regret in his eyes before he returned to the assignment Lily had given them. Remus Lupin nodded to them as they exited the classroom and mouthed a sad sorry to the boys before they left.

Flitwick happily hopped in front of them, talking about some papers Peeves had messed up. However, as they entered the classroom, they realized it wasn't a lot of work at all and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Off you go then dearies, when you're done Mr. Lupin here will escort you back to your dormitories."

* * *

The next morning Cassandra and Lisa almost missed their breakfast as they were both tired from their late-night work, which took actually more time than they had anticipated.

They hurried down, seeing as most of the kids were already heading outside and quickly ate some toast before joining their colleagues. They headed outside and slowly descended down to the village.

"How about we visit the Shrieking shack?" Lisa asked grabbing Cassie's arm.

"The what now?" Cassandra asked bewildered.

"Seriously? Do you live under a rock or something? How do you know so little about this place?" Lisa groaned pulling Cassie aside.

Shrugging, Cassandra followed her friend through a forest trail until she saw a run-down shack in the distance and a normal picket fence which kept them away at a safe distance. Certainly, the eerie presence of the shack itself would drive some people away but Cassandra felt compelled for a moment to look at it closely.

"Let's get closer." Lisa heard her whisper and then watched in awe as her best friend climbed over the fence and started striding down the meadow towards the shack.

"Cassandra, wait!" She yelled after her, not sure if she wants to follow her, gripping the wooden fence with fear, wondering what in the world got into Cassandra.

Cassie on the other hand, guided by pure instinct, slowly walked towards the house, the strange eeriness, drawing her towards it.

"You can follow me or not, I'm still heading in." Cassandra yelled back, looking at her worried friend's face and shoving away her own feeling of dread aside.

As she neared the entrance, the curiosity took over her and she grabbed the door to the house which opened with a loud creak.

_Go inside…_ The words rang in her head as she contemplated stepping inside the dusty, wooden foyer. Deciding against her better judgement, she opted to go inside and as the doors closed behind her, she realized why most people stayed away from the house. Along the walls throughout the entire house were embedded deep scratches, and almost all the furniture was torn or ripped apart.

"Lumos." Cassie whispered as the door behind her closed, and she proceeded up the stairs of the house, dread finally kicking in and taking over her young mind. As she reached the upstairs rooms the scratches intensified, and the torn wallpapers along the wall became shredded pieces of paper. Cassandra held her breath as she opened the door on the left, which revealed a wide bedroom with only a mattress in the corner and a decaying wardrobe on the left. Suddenly a flash of images, depicting several beasts at night in this room, popped in her mind and she yelped, clutching her head in pain.

The more she tried to shove them away, the more they returned, each flash more painful than the other. Crying out in pain she tried to reach the mattress to lie down and rest her head, but as the flashes continued there was no chance she could withstand them. She collapsed on the floor, mere centimeters away from the mattress, with tears of pain still streaming down her tormented face.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Cassie?" Lisa, still standing at the picket fence, hesitant to walk towards the shack, called out for her friend. Yet, like many times before, no reply came.

Frustrated she finally decided to walk over there when she heard Isaac's voice. "Lisa?"

"Isaac!" She quickly backed away from the fence, like a child caught doing something naughty.

"Have you seen Regulus, or Cassandra perhaps? I've been searching for the three of you for the past hour and a half…"

"Hour and a half… wait, is it past one o'clock now?" Lisa asked as a sudden idea popped in her mind. When Isaac nodded, she sighed a breath of relief. "I think the two of them are on a date then…"

Isaac's surprised face made her chuckle and they hurried away from the shack, as Lisa pondered when and how did Cassandra manage to slip by her. "If she wanted to see him that much, she could have just told me." The girl whispered to herself. As they disappeared from the vicinity of the Shrieking shack so did the dread, which had settled down in her stomach previously, disappear.

* * *

As the night fell, Lisa still could not find Cassandra anywhere, and when she confronted Regulus about it the feeling of dread returned, ten times stronger than when they were at the shack.

"She never showed up at the Three Broomsticks Lisa…" Regulus' sad voice echoed through her mind. Her friend was missing and she didn't know what to do about it.

They broke the rules by going off track, and Cassandra broke even more rules by staying out past the curfew. If she told someone now and Cassie showed up, they would all face consequences, but if she stayed quiet for now and waited it out, she risked Cassandra's life if something happened to her.

"Regulus!" Lisa yelled from one side of the common room. The boy looked at her with confusion, slowly getting up from his seat and moving to her.

"Yes?" He asked confused.

"Your brother knows a prefect, right?" Lisa asked not waiting for a reply. "We need him to look for Cassie, discreetly…"

Regulus furrowed his brows, confusion written all over his face.

"Cassie's been missing, since today afternoon… I thought she slipped away to meet with you but, you told me she never showed up… if she's fine, then I risk getting her into more trouble, and if she's not then waiting might be worse… just, can you get me to your brother, or his prefect?" Lisa begged him as Regulus's sad and confused face contorted in fear.

He simply nodded taking out a necklace from underneath his garbs. "Slytherin common room, urgent." He whispered to the pendant and then waited for a couple of seconds.

Lisa watched in awe as letters appeared on the back of the silver pendant. "Five minutes."

Regulus nodded. "Let's go."

For the second time in this week, Lisa slipped out of their common room, after curfew, and followed Regulus to a secluded part of the hallway. A couple of minutes later Sirius Black appeared, seemingly in a rush, and stared at the two of them.

"You said it's urgent Regulus?" He quickly whispered looking back and forth between him and Lisa.

"We need Remus' help…" Regulus started but quieted down as soon as Sirius started shaking his head.

"Remus can't…" The other Black brother tried to speak but this time Lisa interrupted.

"Cassie's missing! She never returned from Hogsmeade! Please, if she's in trouble we need to find her." The girl said urgently.

Sirius looked at her, the same fear now plastered all over his and his brother's face. "She's missing? How? When did you last see her?"

"Around 12 o'clock, she went towards the Shrieking shack, I couldn't follow her, but since she was supposed to meet Regulus at one o'clock, I thought she slipped away from me… it never occurred to me that something might have happened to her!" Lisa almost cried. Regulus observed his brother's face as all the colour drained from it.

"Shrieking… shack…" Sirius whispered in horror.

"Sirius…?" Regulus tried to get to his brother but Sirius just shoved him away.

"Get back to your dormitory, I'll discuss this with Remus, we… we will find her." Sirius rushed his brother.

"But I want to help!" Regulus and Lisa spoke in unison.

"No!" If she's where you're saying she is then only a prefect can help her, and I assume that your prefects have better business than to deal with this… we'll take care of it. Now go back!"

And as quickly as he said that, he disappeared down the hallway, leaving the two of them standing there, still confused and worried even more.

* * *

Monsters and beasts, struggling and fighting inside the room, scratching and ripping apart the furniture. Their gnarling teeth and hissing sounds were avidly vivid in Cassandra's flashes which pierced her mind, each image more graphic than the other. Finally, they stopped and nothing but the deafening, velvety black curtain, which enveloped her mind, remained. It seemed like minutes had passed since the images had flashed in her mind.

As she gradually regained consciousness, her aching body reminded her of where she was, lying on the dusty floor of the abandoned house. Her left arm felt numb, and with great pain she moved it, yelping as blood started to rush back to it.

She finally opened her eyes and noticed it was pitch dark, only source of light would be the full moon, shining through the bedroom window. The left side of her head felt sticky, and as she touched it she realized she had cut her head open on one of the splintered pieces of wood, lying scattered around the floor.

With a groan, and a lot of effort, Cassandra propped herself up, her left arm still numb and her wand, nowhere to be found.

Taking deep breaths, she waited for her pain to stop, even though it showed no sign of stopping. Her head still throbbing from the images and the cut, and other parts of her body aching from the painful position in which she had passed out. Finally, when her arm started to get some feeling back in it, she started looking for her wand.

Just then, the quiet night was disrupted by the sounds of something moving downstairs… and then a bone chilling howl erupted from downstairs. Scratching and tumbling as a fight ensued, making the girl hurry with her search.

Eventually, she found her wand, which had rolled under the wardrobe. She ducked down to quickly recover it as the sounds of animals, or beasts, in any case, something dangerous, grew nearer every second.

Just as she grabbed her wand a deer barged through the door, slowly backing away. When it noticed her it almost looked as surprised as herself.

She might have even sighed a breath of relief had it not been followed by a monster she had already seen in her dreams, or nightmares, whatever those flashing images might have represented. The monster was occupied by the deer until it entered the room and then started to loudly sniff around, its gaze, slowly lowering down onto Cassandra. The hungry gaze of a werewolf wassomething Cassandra never thought she would come face to face with. She recognized it immediately, the pictures she had once seen in a book truly did it justice.

The deer quickly placed itself between them, almost like it was protecting her and the two started to tumble again, as the deer tried it's earnest to hold out against the force of the werewolf, with its antlers.

But the deer could only hold out so long before the beast attacked and shoved it away. Now nothing stood between it and Cassandra. Utterly terrified the girl could barely move, let alone think of a spell which might help her.

It tried to attack her but she just barely yelled _Protego _making it bounce back. As the deer recollected itself, she moved further away, slowly creeping towards the window, thinking about jumping through it, but the height made her question whether or not that would be wise.

As the deer moved itself in front of her again, and the beast recollected, Cassandra saw another beast behind it, this time a giant black dog, softly growling behind it.

Before the werewolf could strike the deer again, the dog, which she had also seen in her flashes, jumped up and dragged the beast outside with the help of the deer. They continued to tumble outside the room, as Cassandra thought about how she could escape through the window.

"Maybe if I could get the mattress out there somehow…" She whispered, trying to calm herself down. Grabbing the sides of the mattress however soon proved futile. For some reason, it was extremely heavy, and as the tumbling outside of the room continued, she barely managed to move it a couple of centimeters. Not only that, but the window was too narrow which would require her to muster up all the strength to bend the mattress and push it through.

"Ah, crap…" Cassandra cried out after realizing it would take her too long to continue with that plan.

The door, through which the beasts and monsters barged in, was only slightly ajar, but as she climbed up the window they opened again and she almost jumped out, barely catching herself when she saw Sirius emerging from the shadows.

"Sirius!" She yelled out of relief and ran towards him, grabbing him around his waist and hugging him tightly. His left collarbone was bleeding and he had a wound just above his eyebrows as well. "I'm so glad to see you but we need to get out of here, there are monsters everywhere!"

"Shh, I know, Prongs… I mean the deer is handling it at the moment, we need to escape, and since downstairs is busy… I suggest the window…" He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back to the window. "I'll need you to trust me with this, alright? If you're scared just close your eyes."

Cassandra nodded, clutching to his ripped shirt and suddenly she felt him jump with her through the window. "_Arresto Momentum!"_ She heard him mumble and they slowly tumbled down, getting a few scrapes here and there.

Cassandra opened her eyes as they landed and saw that the deer was back in the room.

Before she could speak however, Sirius grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "We need to run now Cassie! Can you do that?"

Again, she only nodded and they were off, sprinting away from the Shrieking shack, all the way back to Hogsmeade. They ran to the quiet village until they stood in front of the Honeydukes.

"_Alohomora_!" Sirius whispered and the doors opened in front of them. The bells above the door rang alerting the owners of possible intruders.

"_Silencio!" _He whispered at the bells trying to minimize their chances of getting caught.

"Quickly!" She followed him inside, not caring much about them breaking in and he closed the door, locking them behind them again.

Taking her hand, he led her behind the counter, and as they opened the door they heard the owners shuffling downstairs.

They ducked behind the door and waited until they heard the owners confused voices as they went back upstairs.

Finally, they could breathe normally and the adrenaline rush seemed to wear off of both of them.

"We're not done yet sweetheart, we still need to get back to Hogwarts…" Sirius whispered, taking her hand gently again and leading her further down to the basement and then behind a secret passage.

"I didn't know this existed…" Cassandra whispered a couple of minutes later.

"Not many do…" Sirius said with a smile.

"Sirius how did you…"

"Not now love, we need to get you somewhere safe first, and we need to talk, I'll bring you to the Gryffindor common room, you'll stay there until I get back to you okay? I'll explain everything later…" He quickly cut her off and Cassandra, not wanting to stress him or herself even more simply accepted those terms.

After a couple of more minutes just hastily walking down the dark corridor, they finally emerged from it. Cassandra quickly noted that they were on the third floor, and that the secret passage was behind the portrait of the One-eyed witch.

Sirius then took out a piece of parchment and whispered "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." while pointing his wand at it.

The parchment suddenly started to reveal its secrets, and Cassandra barely managed to read the words 'Marauder's map' off of it, before Sirius opened it and started navigating them through the hallways. He would suddenly make a sharp turn here and there, and Cassandra realized he was avoiding teachers by using the map.

Finally, they found themselves in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. He coughed loudly, waking her up from her slumber.

"Oh dear!" The Fat Lady looked at them up and down, noting her Slytherin attire and giving Sirius a sly smirk. "Password?"

"Wiggentree." Sirius said without a moment of hesitation and quickly pulled Cassandra inside. With a sigh of relief he mumbled "Mischief managed" to the map and all the writing disappeared from it.

With Sirius leading the way, they entered a cozy, round common room, with a neat little fire burning in the fireplace. Long red curtains adorned the windows, a noticeboard was hung up near the entrance and comfortable and squishy armchairs decorated the room and gave it warmth, that the Slytherin common room lacked.

"Oh… it's so… different." Cassandra said, sharply inhaling as the adrenaline slowly washed away finally.

Sirius ever so absently nodded, not letting her stay there for too long, for fear of getting caught by others. He pulled her towards the dormitories, entering the fourth door on the left.

"You can rest here… I'll come back a while later… the first bed is mine, uh the rest are sleeping, so don't need to worry about them." Avoiding her gaze he pulled all the curtains on the beds, all the time whispering to her.

"Here's some fresh clothes…" He handed her some shorts and a t-shirt. "…they might be too big but at least they're clean…"

"Sirius, why couldn't I have just gone to my dorm then?" Cassandra asked. Finally, the exhaustion seeped back into her and she wanted more than anything in the world to be lying in her bed right now… not his.

Sirius paused for a second, as if that thought hadn't occurred to him before. "Before you go back, I need to speak with you privately… right now, I'm short with time… I need to go, somewhere… listen, I'll explain everything when I get back, just try and get some rest while I'm out, alright love?"

"Stop calling me…" Cassandra almost raised her voice.

"It's a catchphrase…" He interrupted her, placing a finger on her mouth. "Besides, you don't want to wake up the others right?"

Her fiery eyes pierced through him but he only smirked. "Get some sleep." And without further delay he left the room.

Cassandra was fuming but she was basically stranded in the dorm. If she tried to leave and get back she would most likely get caught by the teachers… Sirius took the map with him as well, not to mention if she was caught in the Gryffindor common room she would be punished even harder.

Sighing, she pulled the curtains around her bed, changed her clothes and nestled into the bed.

The sheets smelled of him, a fresh, comforting smell that made her feel safe, quickly lulled her to sleep, where she dreamed of Sirius and a giant black dog slowly approaching her and merging into one…


End file.
